Hi,
i have seem to have some more odd symptoms which i just wondered if it was just me or if its a common thing. i've currently got a bad sinus infection but along with the symptoms of that i'm waking up every morning with a bad headache and still hyperventilating - i've now got a really sore jaw and im not sure if this is all connected to the sinusitis or if it is something else. am i being paranoid?
Hi,
I get sinusitis pretty often and I get headaches, jaw aches and toothaches along with it. I've asked my GP about it and she says it's the close proximity of the sinuses to the teeth that results in the jaw/tooth-aches. Headaches are a very common sign of sinusitis due to the ""fullness"" of the sinus being congested. I usually get tenderness of my cheek area beside my nose and below my eyes. This is the most common sinus to be affected, which is the maxillary sinuses. I've heard that if it persists for too long, you might want to get it checked out at your GP's practice to make sure that you get antibiotics if a bacterial infection is indicated, as it can (though rarely thankfully!) spread to other parts of your head and cause more problems!!
As for the hyperventilating, I'm not too sure about that. Important thing is to get relaxed, breathe slowly and deeply, and take care of your sinuses for now!
And don't worry you're not paranoid! Just being worried and empowered to find out more about your condition that's all. (:
Hope this helps! Take care and I hope your sinuses clear up soon!
Eileen
hey confused.
I might be completly wrong but to be waking up and hyperventilating, doesn't sound quite right, are you sure your hyperventing? Have you told you doctor about it? When you wake up do you imediately take your inhaler? Also morning headaches can be a sign of an allergy, so is there a possibility theres something in your room. It can also be a sign that your not getting enough sleep, or worse that your asthma is very uncontrolled, and that the CO2 levels in your body are to high. So perhaps just to be on the safe side you should check it out with a doctor, your gp, consultant ect ect..
good luck!
ally
number of things
hi seems to be a number of things. i wake up with heart palpitations which is down to singulair side effects though. the hyperventilating hasn't ever really gone. my gp has got me on what he called a highest dose available its 500 seretide twice a day morning and night then Flixotide 250 one puff and lunchtime along with this i'm still having these coughing attacks and end up using my Ventolin! when i last saw my gp he said that the sinus infections that i keep getting which seem to be aggravating the asthma.
i'm so gutted its taken such a wide cocktail of drugs to get my asthma under control. i'm currently also on antibiotics for the sinus infection (which seemed to get infected overnight this time!).
eileen,your right it does feel like a tooth ache but seems to be around the jaw bone more than the tooth itself and near the glands. i kind feel like i'm being paranoid and silly but i just want to get rid of this sinus problem.
thanks for the advice its really appreciated!
Hi,
My frequent sinus infections and post-nasal drip aggravate my asthma too. I think it's quite common which is why I'm being scheduled to see an ENT con so I can properly control my asthma! Yea it does seem like we're taking a lot of drugs for just one condition, but I guess it's cos' they just haven't come up with a new drug that can manage everything all at once! I'm sure that with antibiotics, your sinusitis will clear up soon! (:
Again with regards to the hyperventilation, I'm not too sure about that. But I've read that most of the time, it is caused by stress and anxiety. So it typically corrects itself when you go to sleep and are relaxed. I'm not an expert and have never experienced this before so I can't help you much about it. But if you are worried then maybe you should go see your doctor about it. (:
Hope you feel better soon!
Eileen
Hi I get panic attacks in night/early morning and sometimes get headaches but I clench my teeth together when Im stressed and this causes the headaches, didnt realise I was doing it until the chiropractor mentioned it, now I notice it and try to stop.
Hope you feel better soon
I wonder if it is possible that you are hyperventilating in your sleep which is altering your oxygen/CO2 levels in your blood and hence causing anxiety and panic attacks?
If you were hyperventilating so then the change in blood gases above would also result in a headache - do you have dark circles around or under your eyes when you awake?
The sinus infection may have changed you from a healthy nose breather to an unhealthy mouth breather in your sleep and hence, again re the above, you have all the above things going on as you exhale too much CO2 via your mouth when you sleep?
I wonder if it is possible that you are hyperventilating in your sleep which is altering your oxygen/CO2 levels in your blood and hence causing anxiety and panic attacks?
If you were hyperventilating so then the change in blood gases above would also result in a headache - do you have dark circles around or under your eyes when you awake?
The sinus infection may have changed you from a healthy nose breather to an unhealthy mouth breather in your sleep and hence, again re the above, you have all the above things going on as you exhale too much CO2 via your mouth when you sleep?
how could i test the C02 thing?
Im becoming curious about my sleep pattern i cant quite find any triggers and at the moment im stilll doing day three of my ceflaxin 1000mg antibiotics (and overdosing on water too!) To me it just seems like i spiralled downhill so rapidly after the swine flu jab that im puzzled now, Ive changed absolutly everything. im puzzled as it seems as though the inhaler drugs are working (even though im on such a high dose of medication.
I still dont understand why the GP wont refer me to a hospital consultant- basically every morning (prior to the medication) it seems like when i do my deep breathing technique the pressure on my chest (near my throat) eases off and then gradually the headache eases too.
Im currently using 1 puff of flixotide during lunchtime as i end up get attacks during the evening but i wonder if i took this later at night time it would be of better use to me? I never thought about the possiblity of hyperventilitating in my sleep. I do on occassions catch myself breathing strangly during the day..this is really helping..
I bought several books from Amazon about breathing - one called breathingworks by a NZ Doctor - was the best and all said that when breathing goes out of synch it takes a lot of time and effort to get it back correct again.
I had to do loads of excercises with books/hands on tummy to ensure that I breathed correctly - i.e. in through the nose and out through the nose to minimise CO2 loss and hence reduce what is known as silent hyperventilation - many people hyperventilate without realising it.
When you know the signs of hyperventilation it is scary just how many people you notice doing it all around you.
There is loads of bad info out there about breathing - i.e. people are told to take 'big breaths' or to stick their chests out or, the worst one, to breath in through the nose and out through the mouth - you should only need to breathe out through the mouth when you are exerting yourself. Even some forms of Yoga make this mistake and it all leads to bad breathing, to hyperventilation and CO2 loss, to changes in blood gases and to panic attacks.
The books from NZ, which you can buy online from Amazon and others, are from these breathing experts:
In the buteyko method some people tape surgical tape over their mouths to stop themselves hyperventilating when they sleep. I tried this for a time but it just made me feel much the way you now describe and it was only when I retrained myself to breath correctly plus, importantly, the steroids had opened up my airways that everything came under control.
I know for myself personally that for years I was struggling to breathe as I went years without being diagnosed as asthmatic and then further years without effective medication. In that time, I now realise, I was struggling to breathe and I believe I got in the habit of chest breathing in order to force air in and out of my lungs. I was walking around with so much tension in my chest and neck and my airways felt like wet narrow paper straws.
Now that my asthma is better controlled re the steroids and I can now breathe more freely I am aware of how rubbish and how I was forcing myself for years to breathe. The problem was that when my airways opened up, re the steroids, my body/brain was still conditioned to force myself to breathe and hence I hyperventilated to the point of illness - it took a long time to get my breathing to correct with my improved airways.
I mention this because I wonder whether you are now going through this process of your steroids beginning to work but you are still trying to breathe too much and too hard - or whether you need better steroid prevention control in order to open up what are, perhaps, still congested and narrowed airways.
Sorry not to be of more practical help.
In answer to your one puff of flixotide I take:
1 puff of serevent, long-term broncodilator, in the morning to open up my airways. About 90 minutes later I take one puff of flixotide steroid preventer and I can feel it work within 10 to 15 minutes.
In the evening I take another puff of flixotide. I do not take the serevent in the evening because I have found, if I do, I wake up in the morning feel exhausted and have black circles under my eyes which are classic signs of hyperventilation during sleep.
I only take serevent in the evening if I have had a day when my chest is particularly tight.
that routine makes sense..dont think i can get my inhaler medications any higher though.
thanks for the advice bob, dont think i can get my dosage any higher though on the days that i use flixotide in the morning along with the seretide 500 im much better but then i end up using my ventolin i think i need to step the medicine down a bit..Im basically stuck in a pattern now to breathe normally its when i try to change the pattern that things seems to get worse like my sinus infection. (i tried to cut down my ventolin uses)
This whole asthma flare up for me has almost made me a mini pharmacist i'm having to analyse my peakflow keep a dosage list and assess my asthma think up what will help (i normally end up either on preds or antibiotics by this stage) and then go to the gp.
im also stuck in another odd dilemma, i have a local dr from the hospital who comes to do the asthma clinic at the surgery she is brilliant. but now the medicines im being given are being contradicted between my practice gp's and the asthma doctor this is leaving me more confused.
i'm just so close to getting this thing controlled but just don't need a routine bout of sinusitis to kick everything off again...and i'm not allowed to take steam as it gives me swollen glands in the end. i'm just a tad bit fed up today. sorry!
I know some people swear by seretide but, personally, I cannot cope with a combined long-term broncodilator and steroid preventer which is what both seretide and symbicort is.
I personally prefer to keep the long-term broncodilator and the steroid preventer separate so that I can up the steroid without having the affect of the long-term broncodilator forcing open my airways everytime I take the steroid.
Yes, for some seretide and symbicort work really well but it is not for me.
I do wonder whether, only you will know, whether you are having too much of the long-term broncodilator in the seretide which is making you breathless/hyperventilating?
you read my mind...almost
Hi bob,
i had an odd reaction to symbicort which gave me more asthma problems. I remeber woody ang ginny gave me some advice here about seretide and splitting them up (not too keen as it means in on 4 inhalers and a bronchodilator tablet! -and i dont want to be more dependent than I already am). Im now detating (swaying towards as a worse case scenario) whether i should have got both parts of seretide as a separate inhaler.
At the moment im using seretide 500 and flixotide 250 first thing in the morning (actually stops me hyperventiliating and im up and about pretty quick) which keeps my breathing fine and i have the odd tight feeling but its minor. However all im doing at night is just a seretide 500 with the singulair on my way home from work. could it be this overnight gap which isn't giving me enougn prevention medication?
because i'd say im much better during the day since my doctor gave me the flixotide to add in between morning and mid day. however im thinking should i move it to night time?
On a plus side i think im getting my extreme asthma under control with this extreme medication my docs have me on - its just a slow process!
I think seretide works for me it just needs a little boosting at night - by the way your right about the night time hyperventilitating i woke up really early (3am on a weekend damn it!) hyperventilating - will add to the list for my next check up.
Confused, please mention the hyperventilation to your doctor. Night-time or early morning breathlessness might be due to poorly controlled asthma, rather than hyperventilation or indeed something else. Perhaps take peak flow readings when you wake up. Hope you start feeling better soon.
thanks ginny, i cant quite figure out that to do now - im better than before but bad in different way. Its like a vicious circle - im going to delay my next appointment as i think flixotide could do with a bit of time to kick in, and the set of inhalers i have seem to be working but i keep getting these blips that set me back. In the meantime i am keeping a peakflow chart to keep an eye on it.
im not sure its wise to switch anything until i find my miracle remedy for rhinitis/sinusitis. could the hyperventilating be down to singluair? i stopped taking it a few months agp as it gives me heart palpitations but had to start up as i keep getting a nasty cough and a fluid build up in my chest.
It is very hard to tell the difference between asthma breathlessness and breathlessness from hyperventilation. There are probably loads of people diagnosed with asthma who are actually silent hyperventilators.
The seretide 500 twice daily you are only is basically 2 doses of Flixotide per day and then you have another separate dose of 250 Flixotide on top of that so you are having 1250 of Flixotide per day which seems an awful lot to myself - don't you feel 'hyper' or on edge with all that steroid? I am hitting the ceiling on just 250 twice a day.
I can only repeat my own personal experience of taking serevent at night - the bronco-dilator bit of seretide - which made me oversleep, wake up feeling exhausted and with dark circles under my eyes which are all classic signs of hyperventilation.
Have you spoken with your Doc about whether you do have asthma or whether you suffer from hypervenitlation? Could it be that you do have asthma but the dose of medication you are on is actually making you hyperventilate?
Theorise for a moment - your airways have been narrowed/congested due to asthma and as a result your body has been labouring to breathe for months if not years. You basically force your chest to breathe and then you are given asthma meds which, gradually, begin to treat the narrowed/congested airways but... because your body has been so used to labouring to breath for a long time you go from 'under-breathing' to hyperventilation as your airways heal?
The hyperventilation then causes chest tightness, panic, anxiety, etc, and you breathe even harder causing even more tightness. You get given more and more drugs which only make the circle more and more vicious? Have you considered this?
hi bob,
its always been a cocktail of meds to get me back to breathable normal state - i'm on my regular set of inhalers and/or preds or antibiotics everytime this time is just antibiotics! So i cant really tell if i'd be hyper on seretide 500 as if it did the antibiotics and/or pred do the balance and bring me down.
I did mention it at the appointment when i was flixotide but its not stopped with the addition, and the jaw ache is new after the flixotide addition. Spent most of my day taking steam to clear my sinusitis - i wonder if this leads to my hyperventilation.
Im hoping to have a few months of control and then with the docs ok cut the meds down im on such a high dose of everything (including the odd use of my ventolin on a bad day of up to 4 puffs) im worried for the long term outlook dont want to be so drug dependant before 30!
fingers crossed i wake up without the breathlessness in the morning!
Please read the below article on Vitamin D and Asthma and then google recent research from one of the top lung hospitals in the US, in Denver, that has seen dramatic results with people who have steroid resistant asthma by giving them high doses of Vitamin D.
Hi bob, i've heard that vitamin a and also cod liver oil is good for asthma and lungs too i'm going vitamin shopping tomorrow!
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
If anything we in the West suffer from Vitamin A toxicity which may be causing us more harm than good. Too much Vitamin A can be bad for your liver/general health.
You need Vitamin A in your diet but you need a TINY amount - too much Vitamin A basically negates the benefits of most other vitamins and minerals by stopping them working. It is especially bad for how the body uses Vitamin D which, if you read the info on the VitaminDCouncil's website, is increasingly suspected of being vital - Vitamin D that is - for our health.
Worse still, Cod Liver Oil is mostly Vitamin A so people taking CLO thinking they are doing good for themselves are actually doing more harm than good.
It is not CLO that you need but Omega 3 fish oils - I get mine online from Natures Best which is a company I have no connection with btw - so please, please, please, take this on board before you rush out and buy CLO - don't buy CLO but go and buy yourself a really good Omega 3 fish oil. It is Omega 3 fish oil that you want to buy.
Did you read the info on the Vitamin D Council's website from asthma sufferers who had taken large doses of Vitamin D and had eradicated their asthma - it took them over a year in most cases but the scientific evidence about how T-Cells fights infection/inflamation in the body but they do not 'work' when Vitamin D levels are low is amazing... especially when you consider that the lungs/airways are full of T-Cells. Our lungs have millions of cells each of which has a Vitamin D receptor - why would Nature make us evolve in this way unless Vitamin D was really important to our health.
Out of interest, do you stay out of the sun? Do you cover yourself in sunblock?
hi bob,
ok only vitamin D it is! I have to have sun block or my eczema kicks off and leaves nasty keloid scarring, I woke up hyperventilating again this morning - i have not idea what is doing it but i did spend nearly the whole day researching natural options as i dont really want to go to the 4th inhaler.
i kinda ended up looking up ear candles and ear accupunture and then thought to just start up yoga and pilates again!
tc
c
If you are going to buy Vitamin D look for a company called 'Healthy Origins' who sell D3 in softgel form - both Amazon UK and several eBay sellers in the UK sell them (I found one eBay seller to be cheaper than all the rest)
My asthma started about 15 odd years ago about a year after I got badly sunburnt whilst painting a garage roof. Ever since then I have not gone out without putting on sunblock factor 50 - literally spending 30 minutes covering myself in the stuff.
I now learn that sunblock stops all Vitamin D creation and many Doctors are now beginning to put a link together between the sudden rise of asthma in the past 20 years which coincides with us all being told to stay out of the sun and cover ourselves in sunblock.
It is important to read all the info about dose and how much to take of Vitamin D on the VitaminDCouncil's website.
Vitamin D and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases
youtube.com/watch?v=Cq1t9Wq...
I hope this helps you in some way but obviously stay on the inhalers and medication unless your Doctor says different.
From what you are telling me there sounds as if there is somethin wrong in you waking up having hyperventilated in your sleep each night - that is not good. I can only assume it is the broncodilator component of seretide that you are taking before you sleep which is causing this?
Why not talk to your Doc about taking seretide in the morning and just flixotide in the evening?
Left sided chest pain
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Never know what's going on with my asthma...
