Asthma and Allergy Awareness: Sarah’s Story

This time of year is beau­ti­ful with flow­ers bloom­ing and grass turn­ing green, but for those with aller­gies and asth­ma Spring serves as a time to take more pre­cau­tions. Sarah Fred­man is all too famil­iar with this.

Sarah is one of the more than 60 mil­lion Amer­i­cans over­all who has aller­gies and asth­ma. It’s some­thing she’s dealt with all her life. ​“I’ve been get­ting aller­gy shots since I start­ed work­ing here ten years ago. It makes my symp­toms much more bear­able. All grow­ing up I’ve dealt with aller­gies, and have learned to cope with them over that time,” she shared.

Sarah explains that there are two cat­e­gories of peo­ple when it comes to aller­gies. The first cat­e­go­ry is those peo­ple who take aller­gy shots for 3 to 5 years and become immune. The sec­ond cat­e­go­ry, which she falls into, is those who won’t devel­op immu­ni­ty to those aller­gies and take aller­gy shots for the long-term.

Sarah is aller­gic to most trees and grass­es, cats and dogs, mold, dust, and even cock­roach­es. Along with aller­gies, Sarah has asth­ma as well. She car­ries a res­cue inhaler with her and an epi-pen. Her asth­ma is induced by both aller­gies and exercise.

She doesn’t let her con­di­tions get in the way of liv­ing life to the fullest; she just takes some extra steps. ​“I do think ahead about what I’m going to be doing each day and think – ​‘Do I need to take my Benadryl with me? Do I need to take my inhaler?’ But, I think I’m so in tune to it because I’ve done it all my life, it’s a part of my every day.”

Learn­ing to cope with the symp­toms so she can enjoy the things that bring her joy is impor­tant. She’s run two marathons and still like to enjoy the outdoors.

With May being Nation­al Asth­ma and Aller­gy Aware­ness Month, Sarah says it’s a great time for every­one to be informed even if they aren’t one of the mil­lions who is impact­ed. ​“Espe­cial­ly with asth­ma, it’s impor­tant to edu­cate those around you. It’s easy to think it’s okay, I’ll be fine, but it can quick­ly esca­late. It’s impor­tant to for those around you be to be aware, so they can help.”

Also, aware­ness of an epi-pen and when to call for help is impor­tant, she says. ​“Aware­ness of an epi-pen is help­ful. You could be at a park with oth­er chil­dren or fam­i­lies, and being able to notice an aller­gic reac­tion and when to call 911 could save someone’s life.”