Nighttime pondering

[Chukkin]

So it’s usually at this time of night where I am struggling to sleep (thanks Pred) and when I do my best (and worst!) thinking.

For the past week I have struggled with a cold, which doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to just stay as a cold, or turn south and head into my chest. Either way, it had me wondering: are we, as asthmatics, more prone to chest infections just because of using inhalers? Ignoring the fact that many asthmatics are immunocompromised due to steroid intake, but the actual physical action of a forced inhalation to use an inhaler would surely increase the risk of an upper respiratory infection (like a cold) turning into a lower respiratory infection (chest infection)?

Am I over-simplifying things or is the Pred getting to my brain??

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

Hmm... interesting idea 🤔

I always thought it is because;

1 Our lungs are already ‘weak’ so we’re less likely to get the bad things back out again and reactly very badly if things get ‘stuck’. Things will naturally go into the lower resp tract, but other than when taking the pumps we rarely breathe deeply and can’t if our asthma is bad, so anything at the bottom doesn’t get shifted.

2 very few asmatics properly clean/replace their ‘equipment’ (pumps/spacers/PFM etc). We use them everyday, through rain and shine, when ill and when not, but when was the last time you cleaned any of them. There’s a reason they try not to ‘share’ PFMs in hosp- your bugs and germs go in and settle there, if you’re ill (bacterial/virus) that will then settle inside... it’s why you don’t breath in whilst ‘attached’ cause you’ll breath it all in!

3 we get immediately put on pred as soon as we get a cold with asthma symptoms so we are immunocompromised 😅

I suppose if you have a cold and are using the pumps then yes it makes sense that the very action of using the pump will make that could travel from your head to you lungs! It makes sense so probs not just the pred 😂

[Chip_y2kuk]

Preventor inhalers are a steroid....and that will reduce your immunity in your lungs (prednisolone as you've already said is systemic in it's immune suppression) So this doesn't help asthmatics

but I think as the lungs are a weak spot most viruses make a move for an easy target... it's the logical thing for any attacker to do, make it as easy as possible for themselves

[IChoose]

I suffer more because I have asthma. My immune system may also be vulnerable. I am prone to immediate sinus infection with any cold so dripping that flares my asthma and results in bronchitis has been guaranteed my entire life. I assume I will need antibiotics for everything, and one course is not enough. Sinus irrigation with Neil med bottle helps me but only as part of an entire treatment program. I am on Mucinex 1200, theophylline 100, duoneb and qvar 80. I also need heart medicine but it may have triggered my asthma or worse so I was told to stop taking it. Happy flu season to us all. I got the quadravalent shot again this year and hope I escape flu.

[Minushabens]

Most people who get a cold get a cough as well. Ergo it's not unreasonable to think that it's 'normal' to get a chest infection as part & parcel of getting a cold virus. I think where the problem comes in is how we are able to deal with it (this is just my ramblings by the way - it's worth exactly what you are paying me for it ). I actually very rarely get a cold - I'd say that I've only had, shall we say, man flu symptoms 2 or 3 times in maybe 10 years. I tend to get a slight snuffly nose, a bit of a sore throat...but then bang; it's straight to my chest & that can take weeks to shift.

People with mild asthma probably recover much as non-asthmatics do; either leave it alone & it goes away, up the inhalers for a week or so, maybe give it a kick with ABs & normality returns.

More severe asthmatics, or people with additional complications, clearly have a bigger problem as our lungs just don't "deal with it". Hence why we end up on stronger ABs, prednisolone, etc. It might well be that both the illness and the medication contribute to increased susceptibility; I'd personally say it's hard to decide which is the horse & which is the cart (at least in my case anyway).

Anyway, I hope you soon feel better.

[Chukkin]

Apologies for my mindless ramblings! I was struggling to get to sleep last night as every time I lay down, my lungs would get stroppy. I wake up this morning and the cold is not only still there, but my temperature is higher, the mucus is thicker (sorry!), and the cough is now chesty. *sigh*

I am so done with this! I’m supposed to be back at work tomorrow after two weeks of sick leave from being in hospital...