Some people feel as if they are breathing through a straw. Some people can’t expel air they’ve already inhaled, and therefore can’t inhale new air.
Can the same person with asthma have different types of breathlessness at different times, or do people generally have the same type?
The breathing through a straw and no getting air out is the same thing 😅. The straw easily allows things in but difficult to blow out through it. (It’s a lot easier to drink water through and straw than it is to blow bubbles using a straw etc).
Asthma is an exhale issue, especially initially. Personally I find I’ll start off with not getting air out, then if not dealt with my airways will narrow to the point of not really doing inspiration properly either. That being said different triggers escalate things at different speeds for me...
That being said asthma SoB is different to other types. So SoB caused by exercise (no asthma involvement) will feel different to SoB triggered by stress/anxiety, which will feel different from SoB from a chest infections, which will feel different from SoB from heart issues, which will feel different from COPD/bronchiectasis etc etc etc. Inderstanding and recognising what’s going on is a big help.
Hope that answers your question
Yes, it answers my question well. Thank you Emma.
Also if you can’t breathe air out easily your chest will gradually hyperinflate, making it harder and harder to get new, oxygenated air in as there is already too much air there, obviously ‘used up’ air. I know that one as it happened to our daughter when she was small.
Yes, that’s what happens to me late at night. If it happens quickly, it’s terrifying and I hate it.
For our daughter it became a permanent feature, until she got adequate medication. We could see it, but did not understand what it was. The consultant spotted it instantly.
Thank goodness for your daughter!
Mostly for me it happened slowly over a period of hours and I’m good at remaining calm. That was when I was delaying taking Ventolin to see what would happen; but my doc told me never, ever to do that again.
That is a very helpful description. I am struggling a bit as I feel unable to see my GP, who in the absence of a wheeze, SATS OK, and OK PEF, 12 hours after I had an attack in front of the asthma nurse (who had been very worried) GP said she “wasn’t convinced I had asthma”. I am using my Ventolin almost everyday, and when I swim I feel exactly like this, can’t breathe out and therefore not able to get enough air in. I was not too bad until I got ill at the start of the year and couldn’t take time off (absence policy and a very unhelpful manager - but that is another story).
It’s very annoying when docs forget that asthma is an intermittent reversible condition that is usually worse at night! The face that you’re not acute when you see them doesn’t rule out asthma, because usually you’ve taken salb and cleared the issue, or you’re worse when it’s nighttime. The best I can suggest is to become a star 😉 - film yourself/be recorded when you’re having issues, then record what you did and how long it took you to resolve. Then at the appt show them the video of you struggling and tell them how frequently that happens (daily, weekly, multiple times a day etc). At least then there’s evidence for them to work off of that they can’t say ‘x was wrong/panicked’ etc (some don’t believe until they see it with own eyes 🙄😒)
Hope that helps in the GP front and that things calm soon for you
Thank you, that is a good idea. I was made redundant at the beginning of May as our company had gone into administration. I was struggling at work with allergies (nuts, dust mites, mould, nuts, cats ...), and asthma (I react to perfumes etc., cleaning chemicals, spicy food) and a manager asking me when I was going to be normal again, and no “reasonable measures” put in place.
The paramedics heard a wheeze and heard it go when they gave me a nebuliser which is not anxiety.
I have been at the same surgery who prescribed me Ventolin in my teens, and I had many years of being fairly well until I reacted very badly to perfume being worn in the office in 2009. Instant breathing difficulties and cough and that has continued but gradually worsened over the last 10 years.
I have been lucky to be able to stay fairly fit in that time, so my lungs have always been good vs. My actual age. Since I picked up a nasty cold in January and couldn’t take time off work without getting a formal warning I haven’t felt right, and mucus and a cough drives me crazy most days).
I get different types of issues. I have severe TBM, asthma and bronchiectasis. Depending on which one is flaring up, depends on my type of breathlessness. If my trachea is inflamed, then it really is like sucking air through a straw and I get tracheal deviation trying to pull in the air. My trachea collapses and I struggle to exhale. My asthma makes it difficult to breath out if that’s triggered and my bronchiectasis makes it difficult to breath in. When they all flare up at the same time as it often happens, then it’s a real fight.
Wow. You’re like a war zone!
Haha 😂 you never know what your going to get from one minute to the next. And they say variety is the spice of life
What is TBM?
Tracheobronchomalacia
Never heard of that
rarediseases.info.nih.gov/d...
Don’t have it myself so can’t really go much into it from patients perspective but basically narrow/floppy airways from my understanding...
My husband has had both asthma breathlessness and breathlessness from having under range iron bloods. He had to do his own finger prick at home iron panel blood tests to find this out.
Once on iron supplements his (under range iron) breathlessness went by next day. He was able to walk further and uphill once again with no breathlessness or breathing problems.
Low iron = Low Oxygen = Can lead (for some) to Breathlessness.
Not saying low/deficient iron bloods affect everyone in the same way as we are all different, but worth having your iron panel bloods checked for ‘low in range’ or deficient iron blood/s.
biological not working
Brittle Asthma, Returning to work after shielding 
Phone app to record peak flow
Keeping the weight down despite asthma and prednisolone
