I think I have asthma but not officially diagnosed yet.

Just joined the forum and have gleaned an enormous amount of information already from all of you generous enough with your time to greatly assist we ignoramuses of Asthma.

Our family has a history of Asthma and Exczma, my Father began with Asthma when he was in his mid-forties and he believes his father had undiagnosed Asthma. I've had 'claggy lungs' for a long time and a belly laugh has always ended up with me 'coughing my lungs up'... but I've never been this bad/wheezy before.

My recent history...

Had a cold mid-November and since then have had a tickly cough and wheeze that has been getting progressively worse. My stepdaughter, home from university, heard how bad I was coughing and how I couldn't speak for any length of time without me having to cough to try and relieve the tickle in my throat. She nagged me to visit the doctor. (Bless her).

Saw doctor last Saturday where she introduced me to a peak flow meter and listened to my chest. She commented that I was very wheezy and my best PF result was 300. The doctor said that was low as my height (5'6"") and age (49) suggested my PF should be around 440.

For now she put in my notes that I have a virus-induced wheeze and to come back in seven days if there was no improvement. She prescribed a Salamol easi-breath inhaler and my very own Peak Flow Meter (which I've called Rodger). The chemist was very kind and demonstrated how to use the inhaler and my PF reading was 510 after two puffs. I felt much better and made me realise that I'd not been feeling well for some time.

I spent the weekend coming to terms with the fact that I might have Asthma and found myself on the AUK website trying to understand all the information I could lay my beady eyes upon. I found my self being a bit frustrated in recording my PF readings on the leaflet accompanying Rodger so looked on the wibbly wobbly web to see if there was an asthma diary template... woo hoo, there was!

(I've just realised how long this is - sorry)

Having printed off an asthma diary to fill in I realised I needed to speak with someone who could help me with 'my personal best PF' as I didn't know if this should be a 'reliever assisted' best or not. It really is a bit of a mental minefield all of this...

So I phoned UKA and had a chat with one of the wonderful nurses... she was so kind and helpful and she asked me all the sort of questions to help me figure out whether or not I had asthma. On listening to me she advised that I visit my doctor again, sooner rather than later. Which I did this morning.

A different doctor this time who also was very kind and understanding. He said it seemed to him from looking at my PF records that the reliever inhaler was certainly helping but he didn't want to officially diagnose me as having Asthma, as it is a serious diagnosis, until I could demonstrate a week of PF records. However he has prescribed me with a preventer inhaler which I can start using on Saturday.

Sooooo... deep breath (cough), assuming that my PF readings continue to have more jagged edges than the Himalayas and I start with the preventer on Saturday I should make an appointment with the surgery's Asthma nurse and start an action plan ASAP?

I'm positive I have forgotten or not considered something... so any advice for a potentially newly diagnosed Asthma patient will be truly welcome.

Best wishes,

WendyT

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Hi wendy,

Welcome and glad you are finding the ramblings of this forum and the excellent info on the site useful.

The lack of information given to newbies, and I was one 18 months back, like you wondering where do we go and the first week and months as you learn more throw up ever more questions, so please do ask any, and someone will answer them.

Personal Best figures should ideally be based on pre-ventolin use, and not having used any for the previous 4 hours. It's unlikely you have an accurate figure yet, and you can get a predicted figure to work from here tinyurl.com/ojxfvb

Glad you managed to find an online action plan, and is something that I've requested to be put onto this site.

Peak flow readings, don't worry about the actual readings, but the pattern you get from them is more important, and I frequently say mine looks like reading from a force 9 earthquake on a seismograph, but as long as you can maintain a variability of less than 20% is OK, but ideal would be 10% and wish full thinking, but you can achieve control and not have any symptoms which is really the most important thing so you can carry on with a normal life.

Chris

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Thanks for your reply Chris,

[Personal Best figures should ideally be based on pre-ventolin use, and not having used any for the previous 4 hours.]

I'm using the mine-wright meter and I followed the instruction on that URL you sent and my 'rate' should be 422. The AUK nurse said to me the opposite and base it on post-ventolin use... hey-ho.

[Glad you managed to find an online action plan, and is something that I've requested to be put onto this site.]

I found an Asthma Diary template... is that considered to be the same thing as an online action plan?

[Peak flow readings, don't worry about the actual readings, but the pattern you get from them is more important, and I frequently say mine looks like reading from a force 9 earthquake on a seismograph, but as long as you can maintain a variability of less than 20% is OK, but ideal would be 10% and wish full thinking, but you can achieve control and not have any symptoms which is really the most important thing so you can carry on with a normal life.]

Thanks...

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[I'm using the mine-wright meter and I followed the instruction on that URL you sent and my 'rate' should be 422. The AUK nurse said to me the opposite and base it on post-ventolin use... hey-ho. :)]

The figure for women can be upto 80ltrs/min lower and still be considered normal, you take PF's before using medication's and that's the figure you work with and record, post figure shows what's possible but it's not technically a best even though you can achieve that with help. - I can personally get 780 after using ventolin on a good day, but never ever classed that as a PB, my PB is some 32ltrs lower and i've only got any where near that twice.

[I found an Asthma Diary template... is that considered to be the same thing as an online action plan?]

Sorry should read properly, Diary is used to record figures etc, and you should have been given one along with Rodger, no an Action plan is what to do when things go bad, falling peakflows or increasing symptoms.

Actually something else missing from the site--An Asthma Diary to print off instead of ordering (Webeditor can you fix that please)

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Wendy hi and welcome,

I joined last year and felt so alone and no one to talk to who had asthma and family didn't know what to say or do only help from my doctor.

You will learn alot on here and make lots of new friends.Good luck,

love Glynis

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Further to my earlier post... I had a long hard think about what had changed in the past three months or so that could possibly be a trigger and I remember getting two pillows about that time, the memory material sort. They did smell very pungent of chemicals when we unpacked them and it took a couple of days for that odour to disperse.

Nine days ago I took them off of the bed and within two days my peak flow meter readings were stabilising and almost flatlining to about 450/480 each time I had a blow. Although I was prescribed a preventer inhalor with a spacer I've not started taking that yet as I wanted to see if there was an improvement by removing the pillows.

The last time I had to take some reliever was a week ago, until this morning when I woke up being very wheezy and only managing to get a reading of 340... so I've gone from feeling it was the pillows after all to feeling that the week may have just been a coincidence...

My question to the forum is 'has anyone else had a similar experience?' I have yet to see the Asthma nurse at my surgery so it is probably time for me to have a visit with her and discuss everything... I really thought the problem had gone away and now feel a bit despondent... hey-ho! :/

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Hi,

For me it's always a bit of relief and frustration too whenever I'm diagnosed with something new. I found out after having asthma for about three years that I was allergic to my laundry detergent. Changing my detergent really helped....but I still have trouble as I'm allergic to a bunch of other things, like mold, and smoke if I have to walk by someone smoking. So it makes sense to me that it could have been partly the pillows bothering you.

Bee

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Hi Wendy,

Was looking promising to start with, when you removed the pillows, yes certain chemicals can be a trigger, and I have those memory foam pillows but had mine before asthma, but do recall the really strong smell, but that should have gone after 3 months, could try sticking it in the freezer for 24 hours, see if it kills off anything living in it, but the fact that you've had this downturn without the pillows suggest it's something else, use the preventer, get control back, and at the moment I'm putting my splutter down to the weather as are many others.

[KateMoss]

Memory Pillows

I bought a pair and they were too solid for my liking.

Though the main reason for me to return them was the odour / chemicals eminating from them and yes it triggered my asthma (and acute neck ache!).

I stuck them in the spare room for a week where they still stunk so in the end I returned them and politely demanded my money back for the skunk pillows. Not often that you can do that with pillows.

I stood my ground and said they were a health risk for me!

Glad you have found out this was the reason for the lower PFs.

I stick to my 4 ordinary pillows with mite covers on now plus V pillow when needed.

Kate

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