Asthma and the Pandemic: Pointless Suffering

I was just informed I must wear a mask when working afterhours cleaning a grocery store. After the doors are closed to the public and there’s only a few people working there besides myself, I naturally take my mask off. Not only am I asthmatic, but I’d take it off even without the illness because it’s still bad for your health regardless. But now someone has complained and I must wear one. I can’t fight this because I work for a third party hired to clean there, and past experience has proven to me I have no rights as an outside worker.

What really annoys me about this isn’t the discomfort, the harm to my health, or the overall exhaustion I suffer while working with a mask on. It’s the stupidity of it. With so few people around in a large building, all avoiding each other to ‘social distance’, all regarding a weakened virus with numerous treatments available, it’s just plain inhumane/stupid as hell.

Suffering I’m used to. I’ve been through hell and back more than once in my life. But a major gripe of mine is when I have to suffer needlessly for some stupid reason. My own wellbeing be damned because people are emotional about this. The media hypes it up endlessly, and people lack critical thinking skills—or even basic common sense because they are all so fearful about it.

The pandemic has been brutal for asthmatics. In most circumstances where I live, we are required to wear masks no matter what our health issues. We used to have the right to refuse as Canadians, but now it’s less and less. Even in the beginning, bus drivers harassed me over not wearing a mask. Two of them openly admitted to several of them keeping tabs together on which passengers weren’t wearing masks. I had one bus close its door on me and speed away just as I was about to enter because I think the driver recognized me. I explained to them I was asthmatic and even that I’d suffered a ‘mild’ asthma attack at that time without even wearing a mask, but they did not care. I was disturbed by the authoritarian lunacy of these drivers who felt a sense of national duty to go above and beyond their role as bus drivers in order to ‘protect us’.

Recently, I was denied access to a mall food court because I didn’t have a vaccine passport. So I sat on a bench and ate while people walked past me. If I’d been allowed access to the dining area, I still would have been separated from the other diners. At least one of the two security guards agreed with me that it was ridiculous government overreach, but this didn’t stop him from carrying out his job of enforcing it. Just another example of tyranny.

So there’s my rant. Unfairness and hardship is part of life, but suffering and putting my life at risk for media-hyped fear and authoritarianism is completely unnecessary. I’m working hard to find creative means of making money, and whenever I get out of this city I will never live in one ever again. Too many idiots still wearing masks outdoors, and when driving cars. It’s a tyrant’s paradise.

Why am I suffering the health ramifications and stupid regulations to work while so many others have been off on those sweet virus unemployment benefits? Where does being honest get me? I am so disgusted.

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

I feel you.

Finally, the last place where we were asked to wear masks and I wore one let it go because the school district let it go.

But you are so right, for someone who compromised breathing the difference is night and day. First off, your brain is already primed to react to any breathing restriction as if it's asthma, whether it is or isn't, and then in my case, I added in claustrophobia on top of it all.

I forgot how much easier things were without it on my face.

And I know how you feel. I really, really do, and it's a shame that so many people have lost all feeling for others because they're scared for themselves.

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

Shame about the work situation. That being said as a lifelong asthmatic, I don't think I've ever had an issue with wearing a mask. This was a habit that I picked up from travel to Japan years back, but generally around flu season I would wear a mask and never had any issues with it aside from an occasional breakout around the mask area.

Not saying the whole concept isn't stupid in the largest fashion ever, it is. No one should be forcing anyone to wear a mask for example. Just curious as to how bad you have it when it comes to your asthma. Is your asthma uncontrolled in some fashion?

It's complete BS I know, I worked for mask nazi early on... was in a 6000 square foot showroom with 3 people total in it, and 2 of them were in their offices 90% of the time.

a cotton ball glued inside your mask at your chin should hold it open enough to improve airflow or at least it helped me when I had to wear a mask for hours at a time.

a reply to: ketsuko

Agreed, and thanks for sharing. People are too easily manipulated it seems.

a reply to: Hypntick

I ran for years with it, and running almost always triggered my asthma, so my brain reacts as though any restriction in airflow is asthma. It's just hardwired by this point, I suspect.

For the most part, I could go about regular business all right, but anything that caused me to breathe harder was a potential trigger.

It doesn't help that my claustrophobia is particularly sensitive about things tight on and around my face. I'll be the one in sub-zero weather without a scarf because it bothers me that much. Between the two problems, I ended up fighting hyperventilation in most of my workout and practice sessions, and there were a few instances where I had to straight up leave and take it off because I went into a panic attack over it.

It's not so much the nature of my asthma as what it's done to my mind along with the other issue.

a reply to: Hypntick

I try to do breathing exercises every day to stretch my windpipe. Seems unusual because I've yet to meet another asthmatic who has even heard of this. But I don't always remember to do it. September/October is the worst time of year for me, when breathing just becomes a struggle until December/January. When my asthma is bad, wearing a mask at all is a strain. But when my asthma is decent, walking quickly down long aisles to clean for four hours puts a real strain on me. Even without the mask, I sometimes get lightheaded towards the end of my shift because my breath got too short while working for too long. Then I have a 40 minute walk home, sometimes in ice and snow. Not fun if you're dizzy and tired. And I'm kind of an insomniac. If I get overtired it becomes a struggle to get a few hours sleep. Just the way I am. Hopefully I can bear through this.

a reply to: ketsuko

I see what you mean. That sucks about claustrophobia. Asthma does seem to worsen in relation to other problems. It's commonly linked to stress. If claustrophobia stresses you, it makes sense your asthma would get worse.

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

Do they specify the type of mask? For example do the "mask rules" say ply count, thread count, material or that it must be N95?

Because I'd get a cheesecloth mask. It's cloth and it's a mask.

And if someone complains it's too sheer then introduce them to the science of Brownian motion.

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

Oh my asthma sets off my panic disorder something fierce and vice versa. Having asthma issues? Panic! Having panic issues? I can't breathe! I do breathing exercises as well because mine is mostly exercise and allergy induced, there's only so much I can do on the allergy front. The only way I was able to keep up a decent rate of exercise was by training my breathing differently, turns out that how combat sports (boxing, martial arts, etc.) handle breathing can be very effective.

It sounds like that given the timeframe of your issues with it that it could be related to the cold? I know it gets awfully chilly up in Canada for the most part, I also have some struggles with it during the colder months. I really do hate hearing that your job is being the way that it is due in part to the little to no human interaction aspect, it's like most of the reactions to this are based on perception rather than reality.

a reply to: LoneCloudHopper2

I can absolutely relate. It made me super angry last year seeing my friend who has extremely bad copd struggling to walk in a mask, wheezing her brains out and having to duck behind things to get away from glaring eyes as she pulled down the mask to get a proper breath. And all the initial measures were to protect people like her, and yet we now have mask nazis more concerned about their own health than what it's doing to the actual vulnerable people. Insanity.

And it pisses me off all the medical people I know, including my family, bray on about "well surgeons and other doctors have always used them without issues"... yeah, true, but always sitting or standing. Not doing anything active, not lifting heavy things, not out in the sun in the near 40C temperatures. Sitting in their nice, air conditioned offices. The arrogance.

a reply to: Hypntick

Breathing exercises do help; it was only because I had a handle on breathing that I kept up and could cope. That being said ... the difference without is still night and day. Having to exercise and practice in it sucked the joy out life and made things much, much harder than they needed to be. Sparring would have been right out except we were able to loophole and call the plastic face shield a mask. Just getting it up off my face made a huge difference.

a reply to: Identified

Thanks for the suggestion. Never heard of that one. I've been using a cloth mask which allows for open space to either side of it, by the jaw area. It's the best of the masks I've tried.

a reply to: Hypntick

Interesting thoughts. I used to have very bad anxiety, but have it under control at this point. My asthma developed at a time when I was both living in an apartment with black mold and working at a lobster plant where I was allergic to the fresh meat (apparently, because it made me feel ill.) So it may have been a combination of things. Where it does get worse in September, maybe the cold does play a role. Never considered that. To me, the air just seems toxic somehow that time of year. It's like the simple act of breathing harms my lungs somehow. Not saying it is due to air quality necessarily, but that is how it feels.

The point on breathing differently, as in martial arts training, is interesting. I may look into that.

a reply to: igloo

Absolutely agree. I feel so sorry for the vulnerable lady you know. We should be supporting and protecting people like her, not throwing her in the ditch, so to speak. Fear is a worse virus than Covid. It pollutes culture, turns people against each other, divides families, and destroys democracy. What we all need is fresh air, exercise, socializing normally, and a healthy diet. And compassion doesn't hurt too, eh.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah, good idea. I think they are banning that shield mask around here though. The elite want us all in face diapers lol

originally posted by: LoneCloudHopper2
I was just informed I must wear a mask when working afterhours cleaning a grocery store. After the doors are closed to the public and there’s only a few people working there besides myself, I naturally take my mask off. Not only am I asthmatic, but I’d take it off even without the illness because it’s still bad for your health regardless.

The pandemic has been brutal for asthmatics. In most circumstances where I live, we are required to wear masks no matter what our health issues. We used to have the right to refuse as Canadians, but now it’s less and less.

Why am I suffering the health ramifications and stupid regulations to work while so many others have been off on those sweet virus unemployment benefits? Where does being honest get me? I am so disgusted.

I hear you. If I had been forced to wear a mask in March 2020 when sick with Covid with asthma, wearing a mask would have killed me. I was gasping for air as it was. Fortunately, the mask request from the CDC was not implemented until the end of April 2020, to everyone's dismay.

Wearing a mask injured my eyes. Apparently when you wear a mask all the bacteria from your mouth goes straight to your eyes when you exhale. Once I quit wearing a mask (when Delta pandemic began), my eyes healed.

Maybe pick a mask with a cloth structure that allows you to breathe thru it easily. I've linked to a mask test video that demonstrates different breathing abilities thru the cloth types.

m.youtube.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">Mask Tests

Or you could always move to Arizona. The stores don't require masks here anymore. Nor restaurants, nor food joints. No vaccine passports allowed. Vaccine passports have been deemed illegal by Arizona state law. No one is allowed to ask your vaccine status---it's considered discrimination.

I guess the buses do have sign requesting that people wear masks. But I know people with COPD don't have to wear masks on the bus.

a reply to: MapMistress

Thanks for sharing. My mask allows for air to pass by either side, by my chin. So hopefully I won't get the same problem. I suspect there will be a number of health issues caused by people wearing masks all the time. Breathing in all that used air alone can't be good. As for Arizona, not sure I could take the heat. I researched a fair amount of its history, especially in relation to the struggles between the Earps and the Cowboys. Fascinating stuff. I see that very scenario playing out now everywhere. The criminals have gotten too powerful, infiltrated too many institutions for them to be easily brought down. Hopefully it can be resolved without bloodshed, as with the Earp Vendetta Ride.