Feel like an elephant is sat on my chest & it wont go away!!

Hope someone can help. I'm relatively new to this. Dont know if its cos the weather has turned cold & everywhere I go has the heating on or whether its because I feel like I'm fighting a cold from coming on but since Weds I have felt like a large elephant has been sat on my chest! It feels so heavy & I'm struggling to breathe & am getting really fed up! I'm so tired - cant sleep 4 long as keep waking up coughing feeling like I'm choking & cant get my breath. I coughed so much last night I threw up. Seem to be using my blue inhaler a lot with little effect - 10 mins later the elephants back. Its worse if I go outside & then go inside somewhere. Have mild asthma never had an attack just symptoms but inhaler has always solved them. Should I go to the drs or should I just have more reliever? How much can I take? Should it be working now.... today I've used it 8 times (2 puffs each time) feel like I need more but dont know if I should.

Thanks,

Sar

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Hi im angie and i have a nearly 14 year old son who is going through the same at the moment,he has had asthma since the age of 2 and as had quite a few bad attacks,my son describes his at the moment has like a band tight around his chest,he recently had a cold so im thinking this has triggered his of,he is taking his blue inhaler every 5 min at the moment and doing his peak flow every 10 to 15 min which is giving us a idea of how bad it is, he is up at the moment watching tv as he can not sleep ,normally with robert his blue inhaler sees him through untill he gets to see the doctor,i just had to reply has what you are going through just sounds like what my son is going through ,i would go and see youre dr or if it gets worse go to youre local hospital you can never be to carefull when asthma is involved,it does seem to be the season for colds etc which always seems to make the asthma play up more.

hope you are feeling okay soon

angie and family

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You need to see a doctor its up to you if you wait till tom to see your local or if you want to go to your out of hours gp service or local a nad e. Your releiver isnt lasting long enough to be effective so at the moment your asthma doesnt sound under control which needs sorting as asthma can deteriorate very quickly, even if you were only mild. They need to find out whaats making your asthma worse if its infection youneed antibiotics if its viral you need support with you asthma to get over it.

Either way you need to by seen by a doctor. As AUK says never under eastimate asthma.

Love and prayers

Andrea xx

PS have you tried phoning AUK? asthma nurses for advice

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Hi Angie & Angela.

Thanks for the advice. Phoned NHS Direct & ended up in A&E last night on a neb for 4 hours which was fairly scary. Feel a bit better today but shattered so I'm still in bed snoozing. Had some steroid injections last night & they've given me a new inhaler (cant remember what its called) to have when ventolin doesn't seem to be working. Got to go to the GP tomorrow to see if its getting back under control & have been given a note from A&E telling my dr to make an appointment for me to see a consultant.

Angie hope your little boy is feeling better. Sounds like you look after him really well he's lucky to have such a devoted mum.

Andrea hope you're ok today.

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Sorry to hear you have been having such a bad time of it recently - hope they manage to sort you out soon. Can empathise with how exhausted you feel at the moment.

I eventually realised that a few things were making my chest particularly bad at this time of year - I couldn't do much about avoiding them but at least I understood why: the change of temperature and humidity between being outside in the, often, wet and windy weather and going in to what is now dry heat inside a shop or house; the very fact that a heating system has not been on all year means that most of them have a certain amount of dust somewhere in them OR them may well release a chemically smell of some kind (whether you notice it or not). Alternatively it might just be that, for a while, the warm air is stirring up a certain amount of dust in the air which will soon disappear - let's face it, warm air certainly triggers asthma on its own anyway.

I really do find that when rooms of any kind (however clean) start to warm up for the first time of the year, they release something that makes me cough / sneeze / eyes water and need my nebuliser. Strange - yes but there must be something. I don't know if it is the carpets, paintwork, radiators, curtains or whatever but it certainly happens. Am I the only one on here?

Take care of yourself and make sure you get yourself to A&E if you need to - don't take any chances!

[KateMoss]

A Tip regarding radiators.... give them a good clean with a damp cloth and a long damp pokey thing down the back to get rid of all the dust. clean out dust holding cobwebs and evict a few spiders & wood lice too before you even turn the heating on. Hot radiators that are dusty make lots of airborne dust!

Kate

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another tip I find helps is using 4 puffs of ventolin at once rather than just 2. helps me but just a suggestion

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Thanks!

Thanks for all your tips guys - I'll certainly give them all a go - the wet cloth radiatior cleaning before it goes on next time sounds like a great idea!

Got to go to my GPs tomorrow for an asthma review - not really sure what that is - its with the asthma nurse & was told it will take at least an hour. Any ideas? It cant be the same as asthma clinic as thats only 5-10 mins - a few questions & peak flow measurements & youre out.