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Choose one doctor for asthma. When a doctor knows you or your child and has your medical records, you can handle many different problems over the phone from home. The doctor can try different medicines or different amounts of medicine so that your asthma is under control, and you do not have problems with side effects.
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Keep all asthma appointments, even if you feel fine and are breathing well. |
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Ask the doctor for an Asthma Action Plan to use at home to help you control your asthma. |
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If you do not have a doctor, ask friends, family and other people you know for the names of doctors who take care of people with asthma. |
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Your doctor can send you to a specialist in asthma care if you or your child has special problems getting asthma under control. |
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Ask about a peak flow meter and a spacer to help you take charge of your asthma. |
Click here for the Checklist for Doctor Visits
Click here for the Asthma Action Plan
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A preventive medicine keeps asthma episodes from starting. It works slowly over many days to stop the swelling in the airways. You take it every day even when you feel fine and can breathe well. There are also medicines you can take before running or playing to prevent episodes. Many people take their preventive medicine all year long for many years. You cannot become addicted or hooked on these asthma medicines even if you use them for many years.
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A quick relief medicine helps stop an asthma episode that has already started. It can keep the episode from getting serious. It works fast to stop the tightness and opens the airways in the lungs during an asthma episode. You can take it at the first sign of a wheeze, cough, or tight chest. Sometimes doctors also tell people to take it every day for several weeks after an asthma episode, but quick relief medicines are not meant to be used to stop episodes every day for weeks and weeks.
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