recent admission - now frightened and need advice.

Hello all, this is my first post. Last week i developed a cold which quickly spread to my chest. I have had many chest infections and Prednisolone always does trick straight away - not this time. After a day on the tablets and regular Salbutamol i was so breathless i rang NHS direct and they advised A&E. I eventially went to A&E the next morning just to be checked out and they admitted me straight away saying my oxygen levels were low and heart was racing etc. i was petrified. I stayed in overnight and was given regular nebs. I was discharged the next day with a new inhaler (seretide), Salbutamol, a nasal spray (i think allergies trigger my asthma) and a weeks course of Prednisolone and Amoxicillin.

I have finished the Prednisolone now but my chest has now become very phlegmy (tmi sorry!) but the breathlessness has eased to next to nothing.

suppose my question is why after 8 years of diagnosed asthma did i have an attack when Prednisolone usually works straight away. im terrified im gonna be in and out of hospital (as my chest still aint 100%). I know ive neglected myself (no preventative inhalers and social smoking) but if i take my preventers everyday and never smoke again (not smoked since attack) do you think i should be able to get back to normal? sorry for this long post - just nice to actually get it out. The doctors and nurses at the hospital never explained what was wrong or even explained if i would be left with a chest infection so i dont even know if this is normal

xx

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Hi - a first admission can be scary and all the questions you've raised, especially the 'why now' are completely normal. Unfortuantly there ar no givens with asthma so no one can answer why now or whether this will be a continual thing now or just a random blip - the not knowing is one of the hardest things I found to deal with. I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 11 but it was generally very well controlled - a few visits to A&E but no admissions, then I had an out of the blue random attack about 4/5 years ago and for no apparent reason my asthma had suddenly become severe brittle.

I've found chasing answers as to why is futile, so I now put my energy into doing what I can to get the best control possible - but I totally understand where you're coming from and it's taken me a while to get to this stage and there are certainly still times when I have 'why me' moments.

Hope you feel better soon - it can take a while for your body to recover from a severe attack so listen to your body and take it easy.

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Hi, welcome to the forum I hope you find it really helpful. Sorry to hear about your scary experience, that must have been horrible. My doctor told me recently my asthma was out of control and I put it down to not taking preventers properly and finding it hard to stop the occasional cigs (although I didn't dare tell him, he knows I have smoked though). I have now quit the cigarettes completely (its really hard), take my Seretide properly twice a day and use my Ventolin generously and have noticed a difference in a matter of weeks. I am not coughing as much, the mucus coming up has reduced considerably and although I still get tight chested and slightly breathless its not as bad (alhtough I have also just recovered from a 3 month chest infection). I am not qualified to give advice but if you follow all your medications properly and stop smoking completely I hope you will begin to feel a bit better and less anxious. You could also try an antihistamine every day all year round, it will help with allergy symptoms but I also find it improves the perrenial rhinitis.