Jayne Jones – Bronchial Thermoplasty for Asthma Success Story
A breath of fresh air for people with asthma
Bronchial thermoplasty helped Jayne Jones overcome asthma
“I just hiked five miles, and I’m not wheezing!”
That was the excited phone call Jayne Jones made to her pulmonologist Stephen Mueller, MD, after finishing a hike in Yellowstone National Park.
Jones and her husband love to hike, but because of her asthma, they had been taking shorter hikes to build up to the longer ones.
At Yellowstone, they started with an uphill trail that they thought was a half-mile. Five miles later, Jones had completed the hike without taking a rest.
“That was pretty remarkable,” she says. Her bronchial thermoplasty (BT) treatment for asthma had worked.
Life with asthma
After having bronchial thermoplasty treatment
for her severe asthma, JayneJones was able to
hike Yellowstone National Park with her husband, Karl.
“We were vacationing with the family,” she says. “We got into the pool, and the chlorine in the pool caused me to start wheezing. It was just that sudden.”
That was 16 years ago. Over the years, her asthma attacks became more severe, resulting in monthly trips to the emergency department.
“My former primary care physician didn’t think I was going to survive,” she recalls. “He thought he would have to place me in the ICU with a breathing tube.”
Jones met Dr. Mueller at Methodist Charlton Medical Center while accompanying her mother-in-law to office visits.
“I was so impressed with Dr. Mueller and his staff that I asked if they would treat me,” she says.
BT = best treatment
Jones was receiving Xolair® shots for her asthma, which improved her symptoms dramatically. When Dr. Mueller suggested that she might be a good candidate for BT, she initially wasn’t interested. It wasn’t until she attended a meeting to learn more about BT that she changed her mind.
“My husband leaned over to me during the meeting and told me that I needed to have the BT procedure done and I needed to have it done immediately,” she says.
Four weeks to the day after completing her BT treatment, Jones made the five-mile trek at Yellowstone National Park.
Her message to others with severe asthma: “Run, if possible — if not, walk — to your pulmonologist and talk to him or her about the BT treatment. If you don’t have a pulmonologist, there’s nobody better than Dr. Mueller.”
Find relief from asthma
Could bronchial thermoplasty be right for you? Find a physician who offers the procedure by calling 214-947-0000.
From the winter 2013 edition of Shine magazine.