New to the forum

I had asthma as a child, but grew out of it. Then I got hayfever & grew out of that.

I was diagnosed with asthma again about 12 years ago. It started with a persistant cough, but has been fairly controlled since. I did have trouble at times working in town & in an office, but coped.

Then 4 months ago I started having trouble again. Stupidly, I kept visiting the Doctor & not taking up asthma clinic appts again. That's why it's lasted so long. I went back to the asthma nurse on Monday & she's given me a long acting inhaler & it seems to be doing the trick, slowly.

It seems I've become allergic to either my dogs (I have 5) or dust mites. I'm hoping it's dust mites as I'm not giving up my dogs. My dogs are half of my life.

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Welcome,Gillian E,

Hope your lungs are a little settled down now,

you will make lots of friends on here and alot of support,

and share stories.

love Glynis xxx

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Thanks very much for the welcome. My chest is much better today--I think I'm on the mend.

I've had a very scary few months & it'll be good for me to belong to a forum like this so I can understand it a bit better. I've been ok for years & this came as quite a shock.

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Hello Gillian,

Welcome to the forums. Glad you are starting to get your asthma under control.

A little bit of good news (I hope) - evidence shows that people who have had pets for a long time tend not to ""become"" allergic to them - i.e. even people who have a general cat/dog allergy tend not to demonstrate symptoms when in contact with their own cat/dog. Theory is that you develop some sort of tolerance to them. Hope that is of some comfort!

CathBear

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Cathbear,

Are there any papers about building up a tolerance to your own pets. If could prove to the consultant that there was evidence for this I might get nagged a bit less about the horses and dogs.

Em

x

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Hi Em,

There's a bit about it in the BTS Guidelines, will try and look it out and give you a more specific ref

CathBear

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Cathbear is correct the same principle to allergies across the board apply, and do you recall in the news about how they can reduce potentially life threatening nut allergies by slowly increasing exposure to the allergen.

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Cheers Cath It is clearly far more interesting than my dissertation. Can I call it ""research"" for my essay on the history of asthma?

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Right, it's in the guidelines (accessible at brit-thoracic.org.uk, go to ""Clinical Information"", then ""Asthma"", then ""Guidelines"" and select the June 09 updated full guideline) - section 3.2.2 p28, ""Other Allergens"". There's a couple of papers referenced there that may be useful to you.

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Cathbear,

I've had Staffordshires most of my life, but got a new breed a few months ago. If it is dogs, it's that dog. She is a French Bulldog & has similar hair, but not exactly the same. She's also a lap dog & spends a lot of time with me, not like the Staffies who are crazy & off the wall.

The inhalers & antihistamines have helped--I ain't giving up my dogs--not any of them. I'll live in the shed first.

Thanks for the replies folks!

[Skee-skee]

I am a doggy person too we have a 1 year old rescue German Shepherd/husky cross.

Some people do go away to uni and come back home and have developed an allergy to their family dog (happened to my boyfriend). I assume they lose the tolerance (?) they build up.

We used to do Pet Fostering and thought that we were allergic to some breeds of dog. However we were actually reacting to allergens on their coat - mould spores and cat hair!! We took to bathing the dogs in the garden when they arrived and this cured the problem!