Frustrating

My asthma is actually behaving recently, especially since stopping running, and in fact I barely know I have it. I can reduce my Flixotide to 1 puff twice a day and my montelukast once a day.

HOWEVER, the minute I start with a cold, my PF drops from 550 to 400 and I am plagued with symptoms most of the day, every day. This is what's happening at the minute, I have an awful tight chest, feel like I'm drowning in air as I cant squeeze it out of my lungs, and have barely slept after being woken frequently at night. Ventolin helps but only for an hour or two and I need 6-8 puffs with a spacer, this seems to release my chest so I can cough up the phlegm (Sorry tmi!!)

The first time this happened, I was given pred and it worked amazingly well, but since then have not been given it. The last time it happened, I was told I had a clear chest and no wheeze (surprise surprise!) but given my symptoms, to increase the Flixotide to 6 puffs twice a day. This helped a little but not a great deal, but the cold cleared along with my asthma.

I have no action plan so I don't know whether to see the asthma nurse again, or whether to just increase the Flixotide like last time. I'm fairly certain I don't have a chest infection. I just seem to be at the GP's a lot lately for other reasons and don't want to look like a pain in the bum when I know I'll be told my chest is clear etc etc.

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Hi butterfly,

It sounds to me like you need to see your asthma nurse, get yourself checked and a proper action plan.

The fact that you are needing so much reliever at fairly short intervals means your asthma is not under control s o pls see your asthma nurse or gp , if you explain your symptoms fully I'm sure they will be glad yo went to get checked out.

Take care,

X

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Thank you Angelica, I agree I need an action plan, then I wouldn't have to bother the nurse/GP every time I catch a cold! I will make an appointment next week to discuss it and get on top of this flare up.

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Went to see the asthma nurse, she was very glad that I went in, so thank you Angelica! For once I was actually really struggling (usually my symptoms clear up the minute I reach the surgery!!), I had taken my ventolin before I left the house but in the 5 minutes it took to reach the surgery, I was really struggling for breath.

She seemed very concerned and got the GP to check me over. Apparently I had a wheeze (I couldn't hear it, but he said it was clearly audible with a stethoscope) and had crackling across both lungs, what does this mean? My PF was 300 which is the lowest I've ever had. The GP put me on a machine I had to breath in which helped me a lot but I had to stay at the surgery for nearly an hour until they let me go home, is this a nebuliser? I've never used a machine like that before. I now have a prescription for antibiotics and pred and have to go back on Friday unless I don't get any better.

Needless to say, we didn't get to discussing an action plan.

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Hi butterfly!

Sorry to hear you are still struggling but I am very glad you went to see the nurse.

If the machine had a mask or a nozzle and they put liquid medication into,it this does sound like a nebulizer. They deliver q higher dose of medication in a fine mist into your lungs.

The pred will soob help as will the antibiotics and once this is sortrd you can go back and get your action plan in place.

When u have a chest infection thus is when the gp will say to me they can hear crackles on my chest.

Take it easy.

Xxx

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Yes, the machine had a mask and mist was coming out of it, I was struggling to breathe any of the mist in, to start with but it eased enough to get some in my lungs, I had awful shakes afterwards though! I found it all very scary as I've never been this bad before and as I say, between flare ups I barely have any symptoms. The doctor said if I feel as bad again that I should go to a&e but the thought of that scares me even more as I don't like being put of control. Now I've had to use a nebuliser, will I need to use one every time my asthma gets bad? Sorry for all the questions!fingers crossed the medications start to work soon.