severity ...

I am 17 years old and have recenlty come out of hospital (again!) after another attack. This is my 3rd stay in the last 2 months.

People ask how bad is my asthma but i dont know is its moderate, severe or brittle my cons has never told neither has my resp nurse.

I am taking symbicort 400/12 2 puffs 3 times a day (3rd if required)

montelukast and 10mg of pred (for now). I still get coughing, weezing the usual stuff every day and at the moment i have to take time off of school.

So how nad is my asthma really i am a bit confused ??

Thanks Katie xxxx

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Im afraid thats a question no one on here can answer its up to your respiritory consultant to determine.

hope you get a answer and feel better soon

andrea xxx

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Im afraid thats a question no one on here can answer its up to your respiritory consultant to determine.

hope you get a answer and feel better soon

andrea xxx

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Hi Katie,

Sorry to hear that you have had a hard time recently, it is rough especially when you are 17 and want to be socialising with your friends and concentrating on school and exams and things!

As Andrea says, only your consultant can really answer your question and I would chat to him if you have any worries or concerns. I just wanted to say, though, that I have found that it is often best not to get too hung up on terminology or definitions - they are only words, and they are often not a very accurate description of what is going on.

I know people who have objectively very severe or brittle asthma who are on a lot of medication yet manage to lead relatively normal lives; other people have asthma which would perhaps objectively not be considered to be so severe but is a major major problem in their lives which stops them from doing lots of things. I have had a diagnosis of brittle asthma for 9 or 10 years and have always had frequent hospital admissions, ventilations etc, but until this time last year I did not consider myself to have a severe problem as I was always well enough inbetween attacks to work and do most things that I wanted to do.

The other thing to say is that brittle asthma is not necessarily the 'worst' form of asthma, it is just one (rather overused at times!) label for a particular type of severe asthma, and there are other types of severe asthma which don't necessarily fit into the strict 'brittle' definition but are nevertheless just as difficult to deal with. I have been to clinics where there was a real divide between the 'brittles' and the 'non-brittles' and it is a shame when that happens - we are all basically in the same boat when it comes to struggling with this awful condition!

So my advice, for what it's worth, would be not to get too over-analytical about names and definations but to focus on your symptoms, the limitations that you have, and what can be done about those things to help you to have a better quality of life.

Hope you get the answers you want and that things improve for you very soon!

Em H