Chest tightness/pain caused by asthma?

[ChristofferDK]

TL;DR: Chest tightness/pain feels like having a tennisball right underneath the ribcage, and not like a general tightness across the chest.

Good morning! I have been suffering from asthma my entire life but only really felt problems when exercising. Recently symptoms like coughing, phlegm and chest tightness have been showing without exercise. I am worried about the chest tightness, as this is a symptom that I’ve never had before in my 26 years of asthma experience. I went to the GP last Thursday who briefly listened to my lungs (consultation lasted 2 mins max) and concluded that there was no infection and that it was probably asthma. She prescribed Innovair and Bricanyl. After 3 days of innovair and only a small improvement I am not entirely convinced she is right, and I thought that maybe you guys can help clarify wether or not the feelings I have in my chest are normal asthma symptoms.

My main concern is that when I read about asthmatic chest tightness, it always seems to be described as tightness in the entire chest, whereas my tightness is located at a very specific region , the size of a tennis ball, in fact the feeling of having a tennis ball in my chest accurately describes the feeling (see photo).

Is it normal to have chest pain/tightness in a very specific area, and is this area even where the left lung is located?

Best regards, Christoffer

[twinkly29]

Various things can cause those symptoms so it might or might not be asthma, although with a history of it it's entirely possible it is asthma.

However the Innovair (having googled it) is Fostair (assume you're not in the UK?) which will take about 8 weeks to kick in fully so 3 days is much too soon to notice an improvement. There are 2 drugs in it - a steroid which is what takes the time to kick in but which does all the work for the underlying inflammation, and a long-acting bronchodilator (LABA) which relieves symptoms. That bit kicks in more quickly but it's kind of touching the surface at the moment because the steroid is what's needed regularly. So hang in there and hopefully in the next few weeks it will feel a lot better.

It would be good to regularly monitor your peak flow if you can as, over the kicking in period, changes in that should help to show that it's helping.

The Bricanyl can be used as extra symptom relief and you may well need that more at the moment. However, over time the need for that should reduce because the Innovair is doing its stuff.

[ChristofferDK in reply to twinkly29]

Hi Twinkly, thanks for the reply. Yep it is Fostair. My bad.

Glad to hear that the medication is probably not at full effect yet. I have been using bricanyl my entire life, but haven’t felt the need for the steroids. Which I suddenly sadly do now.

I will definitely start monitoring my peak flow. That’s a great idea.

I would still love to hear if anyone are experiencing a similar chest tightness (the tennis ball feeling, described).

[twinkly29 in reply to ChristofferDK]

Am sure others will be along but the tightness could well be an asthma symptom but it could also be other things as many things have symptoms similar to asthma. Using peak flow along with symptoms can be a good way to see if it's likely to be asthma - ie do peak flow when you have symptoms, use your Bricanyl and redo your peak flow 15 mins after that. The peak flow change and effect on symptoms can show whether it's likely to be asthma causing the symptoms at the time.

Once the Fostair kicks in (and no worries about calling it Innovair, I just hadn't heard of it!) that should help long term and then you shouldn't need much Bricanyl - which should help with exercise etc.

[10Mopsy]

Hi ChristofferDK, I have been a long term asthmatic using various inhalers over 35 years though generally I’m healthy and active. I was struggling last summer and into the Autumn with waking up very early due to feeling really tight in just under my ribcage. Thought it might be hayfever and took Montelukast which did not help and went through a myriad of telephone appts with gps without able to speak the asthma nurses at my surgery. I was trying new inhalers which were not improving my tightness. Finally I contacted the Asthma UK helpline who suggested I might have silent acid reflux which is a very common side effect of long term inhaler use! Finally managed to speak asthma nurse at my surgery and now taking Omeprazole 20mg for the now not so silent acid reflux, changing my diet and happily using the Relvar Eliot a 184/22 dry powder inhaler. This has been a magic bullet for me exactly as the nurse predicted it would be with only one dose a day. I was very surprised that the GPs did not once mention acid reflux to me! Good luck and hope you feel better soon,