First acute attacks in the last 24 hrs and feeling vulnerable.

Just looking for some general support and advice as feeling poorly and vulnerable. Having suffered an on going flare up I experienced my first ever acute attack yesterday followed by another today. Can't believe how frightening the whole experience was .On the whole I don't get the typical wheeze with asthma and the attacks I had were very silent - painfu,l tight upper back and felt as if someone was sitting on my chest. Couldn't talk as so breathless and my heart was racing. Started feeling really light headed and thought I might pass out. Don't know if that was low oxygen or panic?? I continued to multi dose with my salbutomol and finally felt some relief after ten puffs . Feel shaky, back to coughing and some wheezing now which is how I've felt constantly since yesterdays attack.

Can I multidose a second time within a few hrs if necessary or would that signal time for hospital?

So worried this is going to happen again. I'm currently on a reducing dose of pred, started montelukast yesterday and taking loads of salb during the day. Is there a stage when too many attacks in a short space of time should signal hospital? I went there last night as advised by gp as multidosing wasnt working but by time I was seen I had started multidosing a second time and was feeling relief and SATs were fine.

Seeing asthma nurse tomorrow but feel this is all so new and confusing even tho I've been asthmatic since a young child. Any thoughts or opinions appreciated.

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Sorry to hear you're having a rough time at the moment. Any big attack, especially your first is very scary as you feel out of your depth and out of control. Given that you are already on pred and are still needing lots of ventolin, id suggest you see out of hours/ring 111 at a minimum. Hope things improve and the pred starts to work soon, and good luck with the asthma nurse tomorrow.

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Sorry to hear about your attack,

Your experience in hospital is something that regularly happens to me but the docs I have seen recently have been very sympathetic to this (last week one even said ""you chest and SATs are ok but I guess that is somewhat supported by salbutamol!"") I find that if you explain that you are responding to treatment but this is not usual for you, they are usually ok.

I multi-dose a lot within a short a space of time but this does make you feel awful and my GP knows about this and has made very clear when this is not acceptable. I had several attacks a few weeks and managed to stay out of hospital (just) because I was responding to relievers. However, the general rule which most people have told me the last few weeks if that if it is not normal for you, then you need to get help. I would discuss this with your nurse tomorrow (ie what is acceptable for you) but seriously consider ringing 111 tonight if no better. It may be that you need to up your pred for a bit or get some advice from an out of hour doctor.

Take care

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Thanks Kayla and Butterfly. I did phone NHS 24 who suggested coming up for a review to out of hours. Was advised to multi dose again prior to going which helped massively so once again sats were fine and chest clear / no wheeze. Was advised to multi dose every 3 hrs if required, seems very frequent to me but then this is unknown territory to me! I just wonder if I am expecting too much ie longer periods of good relief between doses.? All I know is I have never ever felt this way with my asthma in the 33 yrs I have had it. Seeing the nurse later, will see what she says.