Wheezing for joy

I've been asthmatic since I was about 12 years old. My principal trigger is cold air, which is something that's been pretty well fixed by moving to Australia, but it can also be triggered by freshly cut grass and various moulds. At my worst in the U.K. I was taking 4 puffs of a preventative steroid inhaler (which caused me to lose my voice) every day during winter and still getting through about one Ventolin reliever inhaler a month. That was whilst living in the Thames Valley, ironically one of the warmer places in the UK and apparently a well known asthma corridor as the winters don't get cold enough to kill the various fungi floating around.

In the UK ventolin inhalers require a trip to the GP to have them prescribed. This means that every time you move you need to

• Register with a new GP
• Have a routine checkup with the GP
• Be recommended to the asthma nurse
• Book an appointment with the asthma nurse
• Have a routine checkup with the asthma nurse, who will generally tell me to use my inhaler if I need to
• Get the prescription
• Get the inhalers from the chemist

The asthma nurse is something that is a great idea for children, parents of asthmatic kids and (probably the worst of all) late-onset asthmatics but it can be time consuming, particularly if you're working full time. It also treats asthma like a disease or an illness, which for people who've been living with the condition for 30 plus years is both irritating and patronising. It may be something I'm not particularly happy to have lived with but it's shaped my life and it's part of me.
Over here ventolin inhalers are available over the counter with no prescription. So when my supply is running low I need to

• Get the inhalers from the chemist

It's much more civilised.
Incidentally one of the things told to kids is that many famous athletes are asthmatic and it never stopped them. What they don't tell you is that it's often 'diagnosed' to justify the presence of ventolin or salbutamol - a mildly performance-enhancing substance - in the athletes blood stream . For instance it's estimated that 40% of the 2007 Tour De France riders were diagnosed asthmatics compared to around 10% of the general population.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-07-20-3694433468_x.htm
I tried this firsthand at a cyclocross race a couple of years ago, mixing my stimulants in an attempt to create a racing machine.
Here's that finley honed machine in action
I don't want to brag or openly claim any benefits of doping, but I did manage to race for 20 minutes without throwing up. Just. I came in second from last in C grade so I consider that an endorsement.