Orders of the Doctor

I am a tiny bit upset...my doctor has just told me that if I am going to try to help stop my stupid lungs giving me asthma attacks I may have to give up fire twirling.

Does anyone know of ways that I can help my asthma (which is quite chronic and my medication seems not to be working at the moment)...and still keep on twirling?

So far the doctors have made me give up netball, basketball, skating, horse riding and badminton because it was "affected my lung capacity"?

I am starting to think that everytime I find something I enjoy it is going to be taken away from me because of my crappy health!

PLEASE!!!! any help would be greatly appreciated.

Come and do practice poi with me with ribbons instead for a while...

well it seems that your other activities have been deemed bad because of the cardiovascular exertion involved.

how fast do you spin? are you panting and tired after a spin? if you slowed down the pace of your twirling, i think you place less strain on your lungs. if your not tired because spinning slowly and need that release, try using heaving equipment - you have to heave it more with your muscles - but you cant spin it as fast [kind of like comparing the speed of boxing to the slow power of bench press]
any other ideas?

there is the added question of whether the fumes damage your lungs

Fitria,
I really hate to hear that you might have to quit spinning poi because of your health. I do have to agree with Dentrassi, maybe you should slow it down a bit unless it is the fumes that are causing your asthma to get worse. I hope it works out for you, I have always thought poi was relaxing and form of meditation for me. Hang in there.
Autumn

Maybe practise poi is the way to go for now... there is always the glow option...?

mayhap it is time to electroglo. a compromise is better than never twirling again.
please don't feel alone - my doc sez i can't even stand, much less twirl!

It's not so much the physical exertion it is the fumes that are affecting me.

I am constantly having lung infections from inhaling the fumes that are emited from the kerosene. I have also tried turpentine and that was worse for my lung.

Of course the lung infections make me have constant asthma attacks.

I usually go down on Monday night to South Beach to twirl but if the doctor is telling me to give it up that means I will not be able to even go down and watch because of the stupid fumes.

I may not be all that healthy but I still want to be able to have fun.

Gnor - I might have to take you up on that offer....

lung transplant? better that than give up poi surely !

I too suffer with asthma, although it sounds like yours is much worse than mine.

I have found that learning to control my breathing by, taking long, deep breaths instead of shorter, sharper breaths, and breathing through my nose instead of my mouth has greatly reduced the number of times i suffer an attack!

I don't know how effective this is in general, but it has helped me greatly, I also understand that taking excercise such as swimming can also help strengthen your lungs and reduce the risk of an attack!

Hope this is of some use to you, and good luck with it, I know through experience that it is a horrible thing to have to live with!

Have you tried using one of those carbon-filter bandanna face masks that bike couriers wear to keep the car fumes out of their lungs? They cost about A$25 from large bike shops.

Eera beat me to it - Get a mask, some look quite funky these days. Stand up wind of people spinning and just spin practice poi yourself. My understanding is that gentle exercise, which poi is, is good for asthma.

Chillax, there's plenty of fun to be had without fire. How often are you lighting up? I find most of the satisfatction comes from learning as opposed to the fire?

i agree with Eera. can you get a fume resistant mask? the only downside is everyone will think you have SARS or are Michael Jackson [id prefer the former].... but then again its small price to pay.

you cpuld prob buy a filter mask from a hard ware shop in your local area?

if you really want to go metal, you could get ones with fans, and suction to make sure you dont breath in any smoke!

or why not wear scuba diving equipment for that matter?

I agree with the advice above -

sometimes glo poi are better than fire - you can do it in places with fire restricion and you dont get black soot marks all over your clothes or singed hair

I know for me fire is just one part of the art that I love

I hope all thses words from your friends have helped you darling.

Snuggles

Lisa

Where's the boards doctor?? *Attention, paging Lightning, paging doctor Lightning*

Alright, I'm no medical professional, so ignore whatever I say. But you'd think if ones lung capacity was weak you'd want some kind of controled exercise to make it stronger. Wouldn't that seem logical? Like when people have bad backs they sometimes go to a physical trainer who helps them with exercise to make that muscle stronger. If somethings weak that how is leaving it alone making anything better?

again, ignore me, just curious on how this works.

In any case, sorry to hear about that, hope things get better!

Just how much fire are you twirling?!?!?

The fumes are yukky and bad for you - there's a billion and one reason to save fire for special occasions ONLY

ive got asthma and to be perfectly honest, the one thing that has helped me is weed.

thats right, medical marijuana, perscription pot, texas THC.