Asthma

Peoples of The Interwebs. I ask of you this: What is an asthma attack to you? Please give as much detail as you can, and also is your experience "1st Person" (you are a sufferer yourself), "3rd Person" (a partner or family member you live with is a sufferer), or "General" (a distant friend or strangers is your only experience).

I'll go first. For me, the full experience is like taking a heavy bath towel, fold it in half (2 layers), glue it together, fold it in half again (4 layers), glue it again, fold it in half a third time (8 layers). Now dump some cayenne pepper and fresh diced onion on the top. Now imagine that peppery/oniony towel is glued over one's face. Know that your only air to breath is going to be what you can suck through the thick layers of cloth and burning chemicals. Know that as hard as one can futilely struggle, that it is probably going to take at least 5 minutes, maybe a few hours to try to slowly rip those burning layers of smothering cloth from one's face.

Sometimes it's only 2 layers of towel with pepper/onion. Others it's a full 8 layers of towel but no pepper but still has onion. Sometimes the medicine works to "loosen the glue". Others the medicine only adds salt to the wound as the glue rips off the skin.

THAT is what causes my fear. THAT is why I struggle so hard to avoid being contaminated with a trigger.

I either feel like I'm drowning from the inside, or like an invisible giant has reached through my chest and is gripping my lungs in its giant fists. Giant's fist is an attack, which I haven't had in years through good management, but I frequently "get gummy" which is when the back of my throat gets really full of mucus, and it feels like the mucus and fliud is filling my lungs all the way to the top.