Asthma getting worse..

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and I am seeking advice. I have asthma all of my life (I am 25 years old) and was hospitalised frequently with it as a child. I almost lost my life numerous times. Thankfully, my asthma subsided a little and was very manageable until this Christmas. I have had 5 attacks since then and have had my medication changed to help the symptoms subside. (I was changed from ventolin and clenil to salbutomol and flutiform).

Unfortunately, the medication does not seem to make a difference and as soon as I stop taking antibiotics or steroids (which the hospital have given me after each attack) I seem to get worse again.

I also get frequent colds which don't help the situation but I think this is due to me being a primary school teacher so there is always something going around the school to catch.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a bout of asthma like this, and if so, what helped them?

Thank you

Jade

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Hi Jade sorry to hear that you've not been well .I'm certainly not an expert but wondered if your gp /asthma nurse has ever suggested the next step in meds? Like you I've had asthma all my life, frequently had a bad chest as a child but have BBB been relatively stable in adult life until a few months ago. Like you my inhaled steroids were changed but when that didn't work out I was prescribed montelukast tablets 10mg daily to take in combination with my inhalers. The asthma nurses on here are great for advice too, very helpful when you phone them. X

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Hi Jade and welcome to the forum,

I echo all what Mamma Mia said about stepping up treatment again and ringing the adviceline as they are great.

I think I have had every severity of asthma going and have often had to step up and down treatments - I've ranged from several inhalers and long term oral steriods to a time when I just had a brown and blue inhaler (and could get away with forgetting to take it regularly - tut!) In that time, I also had times where I would add in another inhaler for a year or so and then step down again. Currently on a bit of a downwards spiral and are adding more and more in. So this is something you could def discuss.

As a fellow primary teacher, if infections and colds are causing symptoms are you totally well again when you stop the steriods? The best piece of advice I was given last year was to see GP at the end of a course to check it is totally better (peak flow etc should be back to normal etc) If not then another course should be given. A few months ago, I was exactly as you described - stopped the tablets and then was back at A&E a few days later. In the end it took three weeks of continued taking them to totally clear it. The other thing that has happened to me is that with several short courses, the amount I was taking became overlooked. One OOH GP commented that really I should be tapering the doses after so long. There is a section about steriod tablets in the knowledge bank of this website which I have found very useful. I would also speak to your asthma nurse about how to treat colds etc next time - I have just had my first cold without an asthma attack in years which I believe was due to finally having a decent plan and being able to increase my inhaler dose at the first sniffle!

Hope this helps and you can get your asthma back under control soon.

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Thank you so much for your replies. I ended up back in hospital this morning (school had to phone an ambulance) and they have changed all my medication and I have to go to the GP next week to see if it is actually working.

Fingers crossed that it does haha

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Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time at the moment. Have you been under an asthma clinic? You should be with the frequency of your attacks. Also are you on high enough doses of your meds? I had an exacerbation (not as bad as you describe but very bad for me) a few years ago and was put on the highest dose of symbicort and also montelukast. It is a lot of meds but it helped.

Also echo the advice above about contacting the advice line, they are really good, and making sure you're being given a high enough and long enough dose of steroids.

Good luck!

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Hi Emc,

I am on the strongest inhalers that I can have at the moment and it's just a case of seeing if it works or not and then going from there. I am under the asthma clinic but the consultant that I see there seems to just want to get rid of me as soon as I get into the room. I had an appointment last week and my next one isn't until June which isn't very helpful when i am havkng so many attacks :s

Thank you for your reply,

Jade

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Hi Jade,

Sorry to hear you having a difficult time with asthma.

Hopefully, your new medication will help but could you ask your GP to see if the cons can see you sooner or just to ask for advice. Mine did a while back and the cons saw me the next day. This should be even more of a priority since you had to go to hospital - mine have me a follow up to the chest clinic as part of their procedure after beeping treated for a moderate/severe attack (although I wasn't under a cons when this happened).

Hope you are feeling better soon.