People’s longest exacerbations?

Haven’t been able to breathe right since December tight chest dry and productive cough very very tired can’t keep air in my chest been like since 3 and a half months now anyone else experienced a bad flare up that’s gone on for this long before?keep going on about it but I’m just getting worried it’s something else maybe due to an exposure in carpentry work which I’ve recently given up in jan. already seen my specialist about it but just wondering about other people in the asthmatic community cause this feels like it’s permanant.

[Paradigm]

I became increasingly ill from late October until December and since then I've only been well for a week or so before feeling bad again.

[Hidden in reply to Paradigm]

Have you got symptoms matching mine? I’m thinking maybe this year my lungs are reacting negatively to the weather cause usually there not triggered by cold weather massively

[Paradigm in reply to Hidden]

I don't cough all that much if I can avoid irritants/allergens unless I have a cold, unfortunately I've been catching cold after cold and am now moving swiftly on from cold air to hayfever.

Mostly I've had a tight chest, feel like I can't get air in and very tired. Some waking in the night, sometimes the peak flow reflects my problems other times it doesn't and an asthma attack back in December.

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

Hi sorry to hear you’re not feeling great atm

For me it’s hard to quantify as I spent so long with uncontrolled symptoms before we finally worked out the best meds for me. I think the longest time I had where I required weekly nebs at the doc was 5-6 months (a bad practice who didn’t see anything wrong with this and refused to refer me to a resp specialist). My first ever attack also lasted 2 months as I didn’t know what it was or how to treat it, saw one GP who sent me home and told me I didn’t have an infection, survived on ventolin for a month before seeing a different GP at getting ‘diagnoses’ as an attack. Also spent a year SoB because I was at uni and struggled through it instead of seeking help (my bad - I was 21 and didn’t want to admit I was ill 😳)! I’ve also gone 2 months (Oct-Dec 17) with a bad infection after which my breathing wouldn’t calm despite hospital treatment until I was admitted for 7 day. So again it hard for me to quantify a length of time 😅 (I’m now diagnosed as a severe, difficult asthmatic), but I know when I’m uncontrolled I get a productive cough as a sign of my dodgy lungs 😷

Have you gone to see your GP/have an asthma review since this all kicked off? It could be that you have a cold that just won’t shift, or just that you need to change your meds to regain control again. I’d definitely advise going ASAP even if you have been recently as sometimes they need a ‘push’ to get the ball rolling!

If you’re feeling really SoB, struggling to eat/sleep/talk/do daily activities or if your PF is low then go to hospital... they’d rather see you sooner than later!

Hope that helps and that you start to feel better soon

Emma xxx

[Hidden in reply to EmmaF91]

My specialist sent me away firstly and said it was a virus and that it would pass but 2 months later it was still there so went down the hospital and asked for a appointment ASAP and luckily they fit me in after I Had a word with her secretary but I’ve been booked in for ct scans and hearts scans and maybe a biopsy of things look bad, is your lung function permently low with all this going on or does it go up and down as mine is stuck and 67 and stayed there for ages?x

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

Before I got on my current drugs I was very rarely above 75% of my best PF and more often around the 50% mark. This went on for so long that I now struggle to recognise any symptoms until I’m at about 60%. The only times I picked up to the 75% mark was on steroids. Last Oct/Nov it was a struggle to get 50%. Now (on new drugs) I’m back to normal (85%-100%) everyday unless it snows or I’m ill 😅.

Hope things get sorted for you soon xxx