I’d really like to hear from anyone who has been diagnosed with asthma after getting covid, or anyone with any thoughts! I got covid in feb 22 and since then have had several episodes of severe chest infections which always require antibiotics and steroids. I’ve check my inhaler technique, I keep up with all my meds. I’m fit and well (besides this). I’ve never smoked. Every time I get any sort of infection it goes straight to my lungs and becomes serious. I have a rescue pack.
I’m seeing a respiratory consultant soon (ish). This has had a big impact on my life, i have no idea of the way forward with it. Chest X-ray clear, ct scan clear. Lung function tests fine.
Is it possible it’s not even asthma? Any thoughts welcome! I feel at a loss with it all.
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ButterflyPurple
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Hi, welcome to the Asthma Community Forum. I can sympathise my then fairly mild asthma went like this , endless infections and antibiotics, five x pneumonia in less than two years until mu immune system was shot to pieces and I developed Small Airways Disease and a bit later CFS. The great thing is that you have a referral (mine took three years 🙄), hopefully you'll have a full lung function test, a CT scan and maybe allergy testing.
The best thing I can think of is to call the helpline from 2nd Jan when they re-open. Good luck and all the best, I hope you get some answers. P
NB my x-rays were always 'clear', which couldn't have been true because one technician asked me when I'd had TB 😳
Thank you, I find it so hard to manage when I'm in new territory. I'm doing all the "right" things but it doesn't make a difference. I'm glad you were finally seen, sorry it took so long.
Certainly sounds like Airways have been left sensitive/ twitchy to infections.perhaps consider increasing salbutamol inhaler as soon as u start - it dilate Airways,reduces spasms and makes it easier to cough mucous up.ru OK in between? X
Thank you. It's def worth asking the question. I'm on the MART plan, so take a combined turbohaler. I'm meant to exhaust that dosage (12 per day) before using the blue. But I do wonder if id be better on the separate inhalers rather than the powder
Hi there, I know how you're feeling, I had what I now think was COVID in Dec 20 and by July the following year had trouble breathing, after a chest x-ray, ECG and CT scan plus lung function tests I was told by the consultant I have adult onset asthma, I have had various inhalers, and a course of steroids, I can not believe how this just came about out of the blue, still trying to get my head round it, life changing stuff, I felt so alone with it until I discovered this forum where so many people have same and worse conditions, I was told to give it 12 months to see if it improved but sadly for me that hasn't happened so I've just got used to it now and am aware the whole time of possible triggers to avoid, my daily routine has changed and I have to think in advance of where I'm going and whether or not its likely to cause a problem, my peak flow is 240 - 280 on a good day and seems to just stay at that so think I'm stuck with this new way of going on, I wish you the very best of luck with your journey, and thank you to everyone who has ever posted on this site, I don't usually post but I always read them for useful tips of how people deal with different things, hope so much that you get right medication and things improve for you, all the very best.
Thank you. I realise everyone has their own personal battles, and I wish you well with yours. We just have to keep trying different things and remain positive which can be hard.
Could it be that you have some sort of long covid? My experience of covid was that it left me more responsive to air quality, colds etc for a year or so, but whatever the verdict of the consultant I would recommend keeping a positive mindset and try to maintain your fitness as much as possible as in my experience both will help with asthma
Thanks, yes I do wonder this, or a bit of both even. The weird thing is I'm totally fine in between the infections. But when I get hit with even just a cold it's like a sledge hammer to my immune system. I feel like my body changed over night and I don't know what the new "rules" are. Hoping the consultant will help to find some answers or new ideas. But yes, always trying to keep up fitness and eat well - lots of fresh veg/fruit and take daily vits. Sometimes these things just happen and that's when it's so frustrating as it's out of our control.
Yes - I've tried to explore that a bit more. There is a CT scan which shows more than a regular CT scan which was developed in Bristol but I don't think it's widely used yet. If anyone hears of any long covid detail, do holler
After having covid back in the day , i started getting a cough randomly for no reason for last cpl years or so . Nurse last week says shes not putting me down as asthmatic yet as could be long covid ( says so many ppl been affected by covid like this ) the condition might just go away on its own or get better in summer months . 27 days in and no sign of chest xray results , prob lost them , which is quite common nowadays !
It's very frustrating. Chest x-rays are very hit and miss. Although this time it did show infection for me in the lower lung. I wonder if allergies should be explore as standard with new asthma diagnoses/ potential diagnoses? Triggers can change and covid certainly has changed a lot.
Ah, some if the symptoms of acid reflux/silent reflux/GERD/hiatus hernia seem to mimic respiratory complaints and a lot of us with respiratory disorders do in fact have acid reflux. I'm not sure if it's anything to do with the respiratory stuff or just exacerbated by the mecications we take 🤔
Some say that inhalers can bring on acid reflux / gerd. ? Trying to treat myself but do i have not enough acid or too much acid ? After 50 acid depletes , so ive ordered some hcl pepsin tablets see if that helps .
I had what was obviously undiagnosed asthma since my teens, but episodes were infrequent and due to very specific triggers, which I learned to avoid. Prior to getting what I'm sure was Covid (right at the start of the pandemic) I hadn't been to A&E with 'breathing difficulties' (what I now know was an asthma attack) for a few years, since I'd learned how to avoid/control the problem. (Also got fed up going in and being dismissed as suffering from anxiety because I 'didn't wheeze and therefore couldn't have asthma' and obviously, the only other cause of breathlessness in females is health anxiety...)
Post 'Covid', breathing became a constant struggle. For the first six months or so, I was told it was the result of a 'severe chest infection' and then I was told it was due to 'feeling anxious about the pandemic'. Finally got an asthma diagnosis Christmas 2021 and am now on Relvar Ellipta.
So while I've obviously had asthma for decades, it's gone from being something that cropped up only a few times a year to a constant issue since getting Covid.
Snap!! my asthma was hayfever related since teenage years, easily managed with my salbutamol, but since covid i have had (apparently) poorly controlled asthma - going through many inhalers. I thought it was down to the masks - I'm a nurse on a respiratory ward (go figure!) and the surgical masks are very fibrous so I thought it was just them setting off a reaction. So much so I had to wear one of those spacesuits with the hood at work 😄 (looked a right doyle) but once we stopped wearing masks I still struggled - couldn't exercise without an inhaler, phlegmy all the time, chest infections. Thought I was just unfit! Got to finally meet my asthma nurse this year and started on Ellipta - feel like a new woman. Got a right telling off from her 😄 shoulda known better!
Same here. It was when face coverings came in that I knew I had a real problem. I'd previously been used to wear them when mucking out livestock sheds at work, so I'd been able to shovel barrowloads of straw and manure while wearing one with no trouble. Post Covid, I couldn't even cope with one while sitting down for five minutes. But apparently, that was 'my imagination' and I needed to 'practice mindfulness'. Grrrr!!!!
I also had loads of people telling me I was unfit, and I believed them, but I couldn't work out why I was doing the same walk every day and not getting any fitter. In fact, I was getting more breathless...understandable once I realised I had asthma and one of my triggers is exercise!
Sorry to hear that. It's so frustrating when a GP thinks it's "anxiety". This happened to me this Christmas. One week after seeing that GP I went back and got diagnosed with pneumonia (with chest xrays that showed consolidation in the lower lung!). I don't think my "anxiety" caused that.
Hi, I didn't get worse after COVID, but I did find my mild, 'normal' asthma came back worse and just 'weirder' after I got swine flu (H1N1 pandemic flu) in 2009.
Different family of viruses of course but even now, while I don't get more than the average number of infections, I don't react well when I do get something - but that reaction can definitely be worse with certain viruses than with others. For me, COVID (Omicron) triggered my asthma to some extent but not majorly and it wasn't lasting.
I'm still dealing with the H1N1 aftermath even now, and RSV in Dec 2019 put me in hospital and made me much more twitchy for months. Some colds will send me to hospital, others are annoying and trigger my asthma but I don't end up in resus with them - I have assumed this is due to the underlying virus as there are so many causing colds.
I don't have any evidence but I figure this may well vary between different people as to which viruses are worse (or even which variant, though from memory Feb 22 was also Omicron). So it seems like some people are probably going to have latent asthma come out, or asthma made worse, from COVID - even if others don't.
No idea if this is helpful as I appreciate flu is not COVID but thought I would share my experience in case it's helpful. Re your lung function tests being fine - as asthma is variable it is possible to have normal ones when you're feeling ok and still have asthma.
It's also possible that like me and some other people I know, your best spirometry is higher than predicted which can skew things - 80-100% predicted in that case would actually be lower than normal for you. Predicted values are just an average for a group of people with the same age, sex, and height as you - in some reference groups, that included smokers and people in mining towns. It's very difficult to get this understood with spirometry though as they do tend to default to the predicted.
I think that's very likely. I'd just love to know how to improve it! Which is what everyone wants I know. I definitely think Covid either set off late onset ashtma or something. But it doesn't always behave like asthma. Sometimes I find the shock of warm to cold air actually helps to regulate my breathing which is the opposite to asthma?? But sometimes an inhaler helps and others it does nothing at all.
Interesting to see you ask this because I was wondering the same thing. I had a bout of covid in September that left me struggling to breathe for two months after and now I am recovering from the flu and it's moved into my chest and I am so so sick. Really noisy chest and constant coughing. I never get chest colds like this and I've never been so wheezy or had such bad crackling sounds. I am on antibiotics and hoping it clears soon but was also wondering if the covid made my lungs more inflamed and vulnerable, too...
HI ButterflyPurple Hope you are well and had a nice christmas, not had the full results to say yes you have Asthma , had the breath test done and was put on Seretide 125 have to go for chest x ray in a few days, i have not been the same since i got covid in 2019/2020 had it a few times now had all my covid injection but the last one due to chest infection one after the other this has been a bad year for me cos of this, its made my anxiety 100% worse and my depression i don't know what to do with myself am so lonely i have my wife but i feel lost in my self and don't know how to deal with this, ty from Bob
I am experiencing something similar. I never had asthma and never really been sick before in my soon 43 years. Caught covid Jan 1st and had a soon 12 week nightmare which got worse 3 weeks after the infection. It is like I got rinitis and extreme asthma out of the blue for 9 weeks now. I have made a few spirometrys not indicating asthma but I have a home spirometry device showing up to 400ml difference in both FVC and FEV1 from worst moments to the better ones. I still have no asthma diagnose but been using cortison inhalators for 7 weeks now.
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