Hello-

[woodlouse]

Hi, I’ve had trouble with my breathing since birth.I was diagnosed as asthmatic at the Royal Cornwall show after getting too excited doing the Pepsi challenge. Before I got an inhaler I used to lie down very still for hours sometimes days , struggling to breathe and waiting for it to pass. My mum saw as something to be ashamed of so she hid it for many years.

I lived my life regardless and landed in hospital every couple of years. I got pneumonia and pleurisy on different occasions.A few years ago I was diagnosed with a rare heart condition , and they went into my heart to fix it.

Overnight my breathing became better, so much so that I believed I had never been asthmatic. I stopped accepting that I was, I stopped panicking when I didn’t have my inhaler, I stopped taking my preventer. I have had many different inhalers , but could not let go of the ventolin. Because, I knew I would be f****ed without it. I started hiding it by walking off when I couldn’t breathe or going home from things.

I’ve been very short of breath again and very unhappy about this which makes it worse. Currently I feel so tight chested I want to take my inhaler constantly, but I’m scared to use it up incase the pandemic means I might not get another one or be ill with no relief. I’m lying around at home like I did as a child and it’s making me so sad to feel so vulnerable.

I don’t want to be self pitying when others suffer more serious conditions. I don’t think I’m the only one to feel scared now , if I don’t tell people who know what it’s like who can I tell?

[Hidden]

Do not be scared to tell anyone about using ventolin as they can help you in an emergency. I don't know some people who works in business near college where I am temporarily on leave from but they look out for me as I have been caught out with my asthma and they looked after me.

[Troilus]

You need to take your inhaler now. I know you are saving it for a rainy day but it is raining now. Nine blasts of ventolin through a spacer is equivalent to a nebuliser or so I was told when I was in hospital.

Secondly give your GP a call. You may need more treatment eg preventer or a course of steroids or antibiotics and just to check that it is your asthma playing up. If you do not have Ventolin on repeat you can get that done at the same time.

If you do take your inhaler before you ring you will be able to say if it improves your condition which will help the GP diagnose your condition.

You need to keep well during these difficult times.

[Watforddogs]

Well, other than the surgery I recognise much of what you say. It sounds like you always have had underlying Asthma but when you had the other trouble your breathing worsened and sorting that put you back to where you were. I think that many people go back towards their asthmatic early years as they get older. Like you i ditched the preventer and reasoned that if i only needed the odd puff of the ventolin then that was ok - my GP sort of agreed - i never got to the stage when i did not panic if i discovered i had left the house without it though. Over the years i recognise the pattern - that as the weather starts to improve in spring and the pollens appear - i need the ventolin more so i now start the preventer in late Feb to help a bit - then stop June ish - restarting in September for a couple of months to prepare for Autumn colds etc. So sort of 6 months on 6 off in total.

I always have a stock of 4 ventolins because like you i can't imagine not having it at my side as needed. I still work in the NHS and there is no shortage of it for sure. I have the same tighter chest as you at the moment and half of me thinks "is this a symptom" and the other half "if i catch it I am a gonna if my chest is this bad before it takes its own toll". I suspect i am catastrophising and the tightness is just that winter / early spring has been wetter than normal and had I known that in advance I would have kept the preventer going - i probably will now and forget the slightly odd approach i have - but it served me well for 20+ years so must be sort of ok?

So many people nowadays have the blue lump in their pockets that i don't see it as the stigma it was when i was 13 and the weedy wheezy kid - people use them openly nowadays don't they

Anyway - our stories are similar ish - I suspect a combination of needing to tweak your meds accepting that we need to react as we age we need to respond and accept,plus a wet grotty February is your issue.

Feel free to keep in touch

Chris

[Palmo]

Hi, I second what others have said, also anxiety causes my asthma to flare up. All this news and the unknown could it be causing a stress reaction, making your chest tighter? X