A poor technique

Yesterday I was unable to run as I had an appointment at the asthma clinic. They wanted to ensure I only have exercise induced asthma and not the full blown variety, so I was told not to do any form of exercise beforehand.
The nurse was absolutely fabulous (better than the doctor I think), and asked me stacks of questions. It turns out the inhaler I was using was not only not strong enough for me but I had a very poor technique (especially trying to use it while running). Each inhalation was only giving me around 30% of the medication because a lot of it was hitting my tongue instead of going into my lungs.
She gave me a new inhaler (same as Graemes') and also a spacer which is small enough to put into one of my Camelbak pockets. The spacer will ensure I get at least 60% of the medication into my lungs.

She showed me what happens when you have a bronchial spasm, and explained that it is very different from normal asthma. Some people have it so bad that they can have a bronchial spasm running up the stairs. She said that the amount of running I have done in the past has helped me loads and things should improve a lot now that I have a better inhaler and spacer. I laughed about almost hyperventilating when I was running up a hill in Portugal and said it was more of a fitness thing... she disagreed, saying it sounded exactly like a bronchial spasm... especially since it affected me for the rest of my run. She seems to think that the spasm was caused by not administering enough medication (I didn't dare use the inhaler more than twice, apparently I can use it 8 to 10 times if that's what is needed). The very scary thing she told me, is that a bad bronchial spasm will not release (even with an inhaler) for hours and hours, and it's more than possible that this has happened to me before, making it impossible for me to keep running for longer than a few minutes. The huge "massive lungs" feeling I sometimes get once back from a run after a few hours could actually be the airways finally releasing! Madness... sheer madness.

So, she asked if I ever run alone. I quickly answered that I always run alone and she looked a bit concerned. I told her not to worry, I always take my phone, but she simply said if I couldn't breathe how would I manage to speak on a phone! The point she was getting at, I suppose, is to not let it get to that stage. I think she was worrying unnecessarily though, as it has never been that bad!

I had a go at the peak flow, and for my age/weight/height I hit 100 over the average. I didn't think it sounded that good, but she seemed very impressed by it.
I have a Powerbreathe gadget, so hopefully this will also improve my lung capacity even more. Every little helps eh?