New to this .

[Maurveen]

Hello all , I was just recently diagnosed with Asthma , and only after a really scary attack .

A year ago my brother died of an Asthma attack suddenly and without warning ..his first one ever , he was 49 and like me never had even a cheast infection before

Im on the brown inhaler and the blue one , and use a peak flow metor , but have no clue what any of it means or does , no one seems to explain anything

of course I went on line and scared the life out myself with all negative doom and gloom , until I found this place

Sorry to rant on but here is my problem , I get into such a state at the least cough or sneeze that I go into a panic mood where I feel im going to die there and then and just cant calm down , im also getting such negative thoughts , where before this happened I was such a happy go lucky person and was never down for long , I cant believe that in three short weeks , I am feeling life isint worth liveing ..surely this isnt normal ?

thanks for letting me vent .

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What happened to your brother was tragic, but it's something that is fortunately becoming significantly more rare! Most asthmatics are able to control their symptoms fully and never have an attack. The problem is that panicking WILL make it harder to breathe, which will in turn make you feel more scared. This is a perfectly understandable reaction to what happened. I'd recommend speaking to your GP to see if you can arrange a bit of counselling to help you deal with your own symptoms as well as helping you come to terms with what happened.

Brown inhalers contain a type of steroid, because it's inhaled very little goes into your body, and they're not the muscle building dangerous steroids. This inhaler, when taken regularly, will help prevent any inflammation building up in your lungs. There are three elements of asthma really, inflammation, bronchospasm and mucus. So steroid inhaler treats the inflammation. Using a spacer and ringing your mouth out afterwards can help reduce side effects of steroid inhalers.

Blue inhalers really treat the bronchospasm part (if my understanding is correct) so if you begin to get tight or wheezy blue inhaler will rapidly help open up your airways (which will make it easier to cough up any mucus that has been produced). Blue inhalers are very effective at doing what they do. The drug salbutamol is the main part of the treatment of all asthmatics (with very few exceptions) and in hospital they would put people on nebulised salbutamol (a higher dose than the inhaler and it can be breathed in over 5-10mins but it is in essence the same drug. So it's very effective at treating symptoms. Salbutamol is more effective when used with a spacer device, your GP can give you one of these. It is a tube between your mouth and the inhaler and it means more gets into your lungs, less into your throat, it also means you don't need to hold your breath or have very accutamtimings timings to get the full dose. Don't forget that salbutamol can cause palpitations (so your heart beats hard and fast often after salbutamol, this is a perfectly normal reaction but can feel nasty!) and it can also increase nausea and feelings of anxiety. So don't forget that if you've needed some salbutamol that your feelings are perfectly normal. I find the best thing to do is distract myself!

In an attack there is a great section on this site about what to do. Basically you can use up to ten puffs of salbutamol inhaler but if you are really struggling or deteriorating (or have used the full ten puffs) then call 999 straight away. Paramedics are really great at understanding that difficulty breathing is scary, and they also would much rather come to an asthmatic who is relatively well, than a scary asthmatic who is really poorly! So never be afraid to ring them. If you are anxious and feel like you need help but don't feel justified calling an ambulance then your GP might be able to help, and if not you can ring 111 who will assess your symptoms!

Peak flow meters are a handy way of keeping track of your asthma at home. There are loads of sites which you can enter age, gender and height into and it will tell you your predicted peak flow. Is is useful until you have established a personal best. Keep track of peak flow morning and evening and then you'll work out what sort of variation is normal for you. Also keep track of the best number you have ever gotten (this personal best is more accurate than using the predicted value. Everyone is different, my personal best is nearly double my predicted) this might mean doing peak flow when you are feeling really well. Then if you are struggling you can see how much it is affecting your airways. Generally below 50% you should probably be seeking urgent help and following the 'asthma attack' procedure. Between 50% and 75% is quite symptomatic and means you should probably try to avoid any triggers and take your reliever and above 75% is a good peak flow. Peak flow is only one of the tools used to monitor your asthma and those figures are only guidelines. Some people get huge variations in peak flow with little difference in symptoms, and some get little change in peak flow but a huge variation in symptoms. Always go on symptoms, but peak flow can be useful for a lot of people. Make sure you try and stand tk do peak flow, and do a best of three!

If you have been taking the brown inhaler for two weeks and still get significant symptoms then go back to your GP, it might be that the dose needs increasing or changing. If you have concerns your GP practice is also likely to have an asthma nurse, who can check your inhaler and peak flow technique to make sure you are getting the best possible use out of everything.

One final thing to note. This website, by it's very nature, attracts a lot of asthmatics at the severe and of the spectrum. There are a lot of people on here who experience severe symptoms on a lot of medication. This is NOT representative of the majority of asthmatics, most people get very few symptoms and can live a healthy life.

Hope some of that information is useful,must correct to the best of my knowledge, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!!

[Maurveen]

Thank you so much for your reply , It made so much sence to me , and im learning to calm down a bit , just that wee bit of reassurance worked wonders once again thank you so much .

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A lot of fear is just of the unknown, I find the more I know about what is going on and why the more calm and in control I feel! Glad it helped, hope you're feeling better soon!

[Maurveen]

If only someone at the Doctors office had mentioned the feelings of anxiety that wash over you especially with the brown inhaler , id maybe have understood better and the nausea is hard to get used too , but now I know these feelings pass I think I shall cope , after id posted on here had to go down to the local hospital to be checked out and the very nice nurse explained I was haveing a panic attack , I was feeling so bad as I thought id wasted her time , but she said its better to be checked out and get the all clear than sit on something that may be more serious , she made me promise to stop looking on the net except for this site ...as I was takeing all the worst case scenarios and applying them to ME ...

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Hi,

Sorry to hear you have had such a scary experience. The advice above is really good so I would definitely try some of that to see if you can reduce some of you anxiety.

I would also suggest that you download and print the free asthma uk action plan (asthma.org.uk/Shop/your-ast... which you can then take to you Dr or asthma nurse and get them to fill it out with you. The way it works is that it allows you to manage your own asthma by recognising the warning signs e.g. more symptoms or changes in your peak flow and then following the instructions in the plan that your doctor has suggested e.g. increasing the dose of your brown inhaler for a short period. This might help you feel more in control of you asthma and less anxious.

You could also do some reading to try learn to spot the difference between your anxiety symptoms and your asthma symptoms (although this can be difficult as you might be experiencing both at the same time). One think that might help you differentiate is that if you are feeling dizzy or faint or if you have tingling in your fingers or around your mouth, this is nearly always hyperventilation from anxiety. If you peak flow is lower than usual it is asthma.

The reason you feel so unwell when you are having a panic attack is that you breathe too fast causing the carbon dioxide and oxygen in your blood to get out of balance. Even though you feel like you are not getting enough air you need to slow your breathing down in order to feel better.There are a lot of things people do to help their anxiety especially things like breathing techniques. I find it helpful to do 'abdominal breathing' where you take a slow deep breath so that your stomach rises. When you have inhaled all the way, hold the air in for a few seconds then exhale all the way, hold for a few seconds then repeat.

Hope this helps

Lorna

[Annista]

Hi. You had a really scary introduction to asthma. I'm so sorry to hear about your brother, it must make it very difficult to adapt to your own asthma.

Both Soph and Leah have given you extremely good advice and I hope that it has helped you start to take control of your asthma and the anxiety that has been making your life so difficult. It won't happen overnight but, like most of us, you will get there and, with any luck, will be pretty much symptom free for most of the time.

You've found the right place to come for information and reassurance - I've learnt more about my asthma from the forum than I ever did from my GP, and the Asthma UK nurses are fantastic if you need information to help you discuss your asthma with your GP, so don't hesitate to call them if you need to.

[Maurveen]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply , your help to others is invaluable and im sure all who come here looking for help feel so reassured so many nice people are in this place .