Wheezing/noisy breathing - a non-urgent question

Yet another question, sorry...not an emergency btw!

OK, I know:

*not everything that makes wheezing noises is asthma

*you can have asthma, or symptoms like it, without wheezing, even quite badly

But if you are wheezing, or at least in general making more noise than usual breathing through nose (I'm actually not 100% sure what is counted as a wheeze), is it a sign things are getting worse (gradually, I am not in need of immediate help!), or just that they're changing? Pred seems to have had opposite effect from what it was supposed to (a coincidence, I think, don't think it's making things worse just not making them better). And I seem to have been making more noise breathing in the last week and a half or so, and not just late at night. I used to breathe noisily later in the evening and when trying to get to sleep, now it seems like it's happening more throughout the day.

As ever I will get help if needed but don't think I do yet (and nothing much they can do for me at OOH/GP etc anyway), just curious and wondering if this is something I should be paying attention to as an indicator or if it's just a bit random like everything else my lungs manage to come up with.

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I no exactly what u mean, it sounds like im blowing the bag pipes each breat in and out i do, slightly annoyin, and i havd to admit, the volume of air intake feels reduced! I was pondering the same question, is it asthma or not!! X

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are you sure its wheezing - silly question i know!

could be other noises indication infection?

also could be mucus on your chest, which you need help clearing/ coughing up (sorry if too mcuh info! lol)

x

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Hi Philomena, I experience this wheezy noisy breathing especially at night when I have an infection, it's caused by mucous plugs. I neb saline and fo chest physio which helps. I always get checked out when this happens and usually feel very poorly.

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HI, thanks for replies! Confusing the hell out of me but then lungs always do, don't do normal lol

Snowygirl, I'm not sure if it is wheezing or not - I put wheezing first in title then changed to 'and noisy breathing', as not really sure what qualifies as a wheeze. All I know is it's getting a bit noisier, you may be onto something with the mucus as I've been feeling like there might be something down there - but I just know if I went to GP or anyone with it they probably wouldn't hear anything and never seem to do much anyway.

Was wondering about asking re chest physio in next appt, don't know if it would help/I'd get it. Had it before, sort of, but that was when they thought hyperventilation and just gave me breathing exercises which did nothing.

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I too am finding it hard to distinguish what is wheezing, crackling, whistling or just noisy breathing, I get all of them according to my doctor. When I had a chest infection he described it as crackling. I whistle when breathing at night sometimes. When he listened to my chest the other day (infection free now) he said I was more wheezy then than when I had the infection, BUT that the infection had caused my asthma to be ""out of control"" and not properly managed. He put me on Seretide for a month to see if it improves. I am now breathing more noisily than ever and coughing loads, probably until the Seretide kicks in, only been on it since Monday. I used to be worse in the evening and at night, but am now coughing all day and my voice is going hoarse because of it. Plus I am still coughing up nearly as much nasty stuff as when I had the chest infection. This is a very confusing condition!

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KEB that sounds horrible, and also confusing - really hope the Seretide kicks in soon and you get rid of the cough - I find it bad enough having the coughing fits not 24/7!

I get the 'noisy' breath and whistling, not sure about the wheeze like I said, really hard to tell the difference. Thing is half the time doctors only seem to feel the need to tell me if it's clear, and now I'm not sure if them saying nothing means it's fine or if they actually heard something - I hate it when they don't say. My GP used to tell me it was clear every time, then stopped saying that (so I wasn't sure if she'd heard something), now seems to have just stopped listening, maybe because she doesn't expect to hear anything! Bit frustrating recently when I went in to ask for the pred and was coughing like mad, would have thought maybe something there (though on previous experience probably not...)

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I think next time I see the doc I will ask him what the differences are and get him to explain!

Karen

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Please do and share what you find, would like to know though also hoping you don't need to go back soon!

Or would any medics on here like to explain? I think it confuses everyone concerned, especially since I also don't know if you can get more than one at once. And I bet everything gets lumped together as 'wheezing' a lot of the time even if not accurate.

Looked it up here but no help, says a wheeze means PF < 50% normal.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeze

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I will try to remember to put something up - going back for a review of a month on Seretide at the end of August so will ask then and write it down! Doc said I was wheezy even when peak flow was a normal reading (it always is) and he admits thats frustrating.

Karen