Insidious asthma

[Wheezycat]

I am wondering if there are others with similar concerns to mine. I was diagnosed late in life, but looking back I think the warning signs were there from childhood. I have always been a bit of a cougher. But asthma as a problem crept up on me slowly, and thus I learned to live with the symptoms without realising I had symptoms. Those symptoms I did go to the doctor with - like periodically waking myself up coughing - weren’t picked up by doctors either, something that was eventually commented on by a GP when I ended up in hospital. Both our daughter, an asthmatic, and a friend who is a doctor have been quite clear that they could hear me ‘breathing badly’ for some years though I didn’t notice myself.

Though I don’t generally have dramatic episodes, I have ended up in hospital once and nearly again recently. Obviously I felt quite ill then, but didn’t realise I was as ill as all that. On both occasions it was picked up by the GP, and I was sent in/nearly sent in from their surgery. So my body has got used to functioning on less than all cylinders as it were. (It has taken me a long time and determined effort to begin to be aware when things are not so good.)

Now I seem to have less physical stamina than I used to and my energy seems to run out faster than it used to. Mind you, I am also getting quite old, and it is hard to tell one from the other. Do others diagnosed later in life feel the same? That somehow asthma has got in the way of fully functioning, but in a subtle, hard to pin down way? That it makes you tired even when you don’t otherwise have overt symptoms, or you just don’t notice them? I would be really interested to hear.

[GoSport]

Yes this does sound familiar to me. I am 64 now but when I was 5-year's old I had to stay in one heated room for a couple of weeks as I had had a cold and it 'was not getting better'. When I was a child, a drink of Roses Lime Juice would get me wheezing badly. I then had a really bad asthma attack in my late teens and I was given ephedrine as a treatment. After this episode I would often end up with antibiotics after a normal cold for 'bronchitis' and the doctors would always be perplexed as to why they hadn't 'worked' and I would get a second dose. A cold virus these days often triggers asthma which require steroids . I use a brown inhaler now, very rarely I have a puff of my blue inhaler, I take antihistamine daily all the year round (as my asthma is also triggered by allergies). I don't really wheeze any more but get constricted airways, flutters and a cough with phlegm and yes I have always from about teenage years been 'a tired person' and needed the odd nap.

[Wheezycat in reply to GoSport]

Interesting. I don’t have allergies, not much anyway, and they are not my main triggers. I, too, react badly with colds, and I have had to be on prednisolone 4 times within the last 12 months. I was on Clenil but three years ago I was changed to Symbicort that has worked far better for me. My ‘attacks’ have by and large been with respiratory infections, and largely brief reactions to things like indoor air pollution and in particular for me cold weather. I just get less able with cold weather. When I have a bad episode I slide into it over a day or a few, no sudden big dramas. But interesting to hear others lack that energy, or rather, it doesn’t last when it arrives.

[emmasue]

I have had asthma all my life, but I've always tried to overcome its effects. However, I am now 42 and find that I don't have any energy, I can't exercise like I used to, I can't even walk like I used to. I had flu last year and I've been bad since, but I do think that this has been creeping up on me over the past 10 years or so. I don't know if it's because I went through a bad patch about 12 years ago and it wasn't really picked up as an "asthma" issue until several years later or whether I would have gone through it anyway. But looking back, I didn't really see "this" coming. I just tried to go on as normal. Now, I have even been signed off for Universal Credit as not being able to work. Sometimes, I think I am feeling better and I feel a bit guilty about this. Then my symptoms pick up again. I keep thinking that I am too young to be this ill. I don't know if I will ever get any better. I hope so. But now, I am just trying to rest as much as possible, hoping to reverse some of the damage.

[Wheezycat in reply to emmasue]

You are clearly worse off than me, I am sorry to hear that. I am 70, so I don’t have to work, though I do a bit. I am no athlete, never was, but keen to keep moving, but going for walks in winter these days feels like a threat, sadly, and I struggle to find a suitable version of exercise for me. Currently I do a yoga class for people with challenges, and circle dancing, both blissfully indoors and with nice company, but I would like something else, not gyms or pools. I find now I frequently fall asleep in the sofa in the evenings, and my body says bedtime a fair amount earlier than it used to. Yes, my stamina has definitely taken a hit.

[emmasue in reply to Wheezycat]

I'd like to do some yoga. At the moment, I'm trying to chase after the kids too much. I just hope things get better before they get worse again. Getting out is always a good thing. Take care!

[Echoblue]

Hi Wheezycat, I think we become rather too adept at adapting to manage our symptoms thereby we can end up with dysfunctional breathing. Think it is a bit of a ‘chicken and egg’ scenario where what contributes to what? To manage on lower oxygen it is easy to end up adapting your breathing to cope which in turn can end up making the next downturn more impactful etc! I know I now have less “leaway” from not feeling too good to really being in a poor way than I used to! I know that doesn’t give you an answer, but is the way I see what has been going on in the twists and turns of the last few years!

It is so easy to blame everything on a chronic condition, but general rule of safety - if anything is different from your “normal” then please do seek clinical advice x

[Wheezycat in reply to Echoblue]

Yes, I agree, and it is useful to be aware of the ‘shorter runway’ as it were. I am getting better at noticing, but far from perfect. More just now it is that insidious tiredness. I had a significant (and nasty) deterioration in mid May, and though I am well over it, I still get so much more tired than I used to. I find that frustrating. I don’t like having lost a fair amount of stamina.

[Hidden]

Hi Wheezycat, I got diagnosed last year with age onset asthma as I had a spectacular wheeze on a night. I started off with brown & blue inhaler and off I went blissfully unaware of how bad asthma can be.

The start of this year I had a really bad chest infection which floored my asthma, I was so scared, gasping for breath if I tried to talk. I'm now on Flutiform, Montelukast tablets and Salbutamol. I've had 3 chest infections this year, May Day holiday I ended up at A&E on a nebuliser. I am currently waiting to phone my asthma nurse today as i've got another chest infection. They seem to come out of no-where and absolutly floor me.

Looking back, I have had asthma for quite a few years before actually being diagnosed, I would cough and cough sometimes to the point of being sick. My dad was the same so I thought it was just something that we did. My dad had COPD in later life and am now a bit worried that I end up as ill as he was.

[Wheezycat in reply to Hidden]

That has similarities to me. That bit of me not realising, and also it not being picked up by health care professionals. Oh, well. Like you I really hope I will never get COPD, but I suppose there is a chance.

[Hidden in reply to Wheezycat]

Just back from Asthma nurse, more oral steroids stronger Flutiform and a steroid nasal spray - with all my other medications I'm going to start rattling!!

[Wheezycat in reply to Hidden]

We could start a rattling club!

[Hidden in reply to Wheezycat]

🤣 you've got to laugh...though not too hard or it will set a coughing fit off!

[Yellow75]

My asthma is cough based, which I have had since a child. It wasn't until my mid thirties that I acknowledged the cough was asthma. I didn't take my medication until well into an episode which made recovery worse. I always felt that asthma was wheezing and that an attack was where you were really struggling for breath, my first experience of asthma was like this. I do think not being properly aware of what asthma symptoms were and medical professionals not making me aware, may have had some lasting impact. That now as you say not firing on all cylinders. It is tiring sometimes particularly when you trundle on, on low peak flow

[Spikedog66]

I have read your post and replies and although asthma is nothing to smile about I have, because you are all me!! What will my chest allow me to do today? Tidy up my tip of a house? Wash and hang it out or will the pollen make me use my inhaler more or will I need a nebulizer tonight? We adapt to what our chests dictate sometimes without knowing it and it's awful at times to be so poorly and be unable to do what we used to do. We do what we can and appreciate the good days which sometimes are very few. Asthma effects everything but we are here and broken but not beat. My best wishes to you all and I hope you are all having a good day but if not tomorrow you might.😊

[Echoblue in reply to Spikedog66]

As they say, you can still draw with a broken crayon! ✍️ 🖍

We find ways to manage as best we can ..... what choice do we have? But we can then be our own worst enemy as we can mask our difficulties and not appear as bad as perhaps we are!

I get the ironic smile as many a post gives me that knowing smile or chuckle! I so love the positivity in HU 👍🏻👏🏻 x

[Spikedog66 in reply to Echoblue]

I do like that saying!! I have never heard it before and it's very true, no unfortunately we haven't got a choice.

I can't drive anymore and my daughter takes me shopping for an hour over the weekend if I'm well, I have a blue badge which we use if a space. I have been glared and tutted at and even asked why I have a blue badge, my answer was you have the badge on condition you take the illnesses that go with it...was this what you meant by not appearing as bad as we are? 😊

[Echoblue in reply to Spikedog66]

I would share the photo of the crayon saying with you except from my phone it won’t let me add photos into responses on HU.

What I was meaning is we often struggle on and try and adapt what we do with breathing issues to keep going as long as we can, often to our own detriment..... stubborn and often not very helpful but so many I know also do that too! So sorry to hear people tutt and cluck about you having a disabled badge. When did we become such a judgemental society 😔.

[Wheezycat in reply to Echoblue]

I have been at that struggling stage without even realising I was struggling! I masked it from myself, very effectively.

[Wheezycat]

Hello to you, too. Clearly your asthma affects you more than me. I have down periods and really bad periods, but I can do a fair amount in between. I just don’t have the stamina I used to so I don’t last as long, and I fall asleep in the early evenings sitting in the sofa, or even sometimes in the daytime. It is all tedious!

[Spikedog66]

It's exhausting I have asthma and copd with many other health issues but sitting having a coffee in the kitchen watching the birds in my post stamp of a garden wheezing and coughing but I'm lucky today, many of us in hospital attached to machines been poked and prodded so it's a good day. Have coughed most of the night and tired will sleep when my chest allows or nap which I do a lot of but it's not a bad day we are here and coping with what we've got so we plod on😃

[Spikedog66]

Get you now! Do that often unfortunately. Yep a very judgmental society if they only knew and spent a day in our shoes.😊