My Asthma Was Once Mistaken for Covid-19.

A funny story.

I was diagnosed with a type of asthma that I hadn’t heard before — Cough Variant Asthma. It’s a constant chronic dry and nonproductive cough. It kind of feels like a coughing hiccup. I had that for years. I was living in a small town before I moved back home. The health region there is not that great, and I did have my cough checked out with a doctor there only to hear that it’s normal.

Since I’ve moved back home, it’s not normal. It’s Asthma.

This story happened when I first started on an inhaler that did not work.

It was an unusually warm February day. However, before I booked this appointment with this new Optometrist, I remember that I had some uneasy feelings towards this meeting.

A few months prior, I moved back home because the small town I was living in didn’t have many job opportunities aside from minimum wage retail and restaurant ones. Unfortunately, I was laid off in April 2020, along with many others, because of the pandemic.

It also means that I had to look for a new Optometrist because I was running low on contacts.

Anyways, I was feeling uneasy about going to this new Eye Doctor. I even told my mother, and she said to go.

So we went, and I went into the store by myself. Or rather, since it is during a pandemic, I had to call them just to let me in.

The air in the building felt warm and there was something else that I can’t put my finger on, but to tell you the truth, the air in the room was triggering my cough-variant asthma. And before I forget, I was wearing a mask at all times.

The receptionist got me into the examination room. So I sat there coughing. Then, a few minutes later, the receptionist came with one of those thermometer guns. She told me they had to take my temperature for safety measures because they thought I might have Covid.

I let her take my temperature and told her that I have Cough Variant Asthma and that I was coughing all the time way before this pandemic. She got out of the exam room and came back with a water bottle for me to drink, which I did while waiting for the Optometrist.

However, I was uneasy about this whole visit because of the price of the eye exam, which I then found out was expensive. It’s the same amount as my contacts.

After that experience, I went home and onto Facebook and posted this:

“I never thought that my Cough-Variant Asthma would be mistaken for Covid-19 at an Optometrist.”

The good news is that a few months ago, I changed Eye Doctors once again because my current one is cheaper.

Nowadays.

I can’t remember the first time that I let someone know that my cough was asthma-related. But I do remember my mother was there too and she told me not to do that. I had to remind her of the story above and that it’s important. Plus, I don’t know why she tells me what to say and do since I am an adult.

The second time I had to let someone know of my asthma was when a cough came out of me while I was watching and talking to First Responders, who took my mother to the hospital because she had high blood pressure. My mother didn’t say anything about that because there were paramedics around.

If you want to know what Cough Variant Asthma is, here is a WebMD link for you to read: Cough-Variant Asthma Symptoms, Treatments, Causes, and More (webmd.com).