Uncontrolled asthma and pregnancy

Butterbean

17 Apr 12

10:28am

Hi all

This is my 1st post and i'm new to Asthma UK. My Asthma has been almost non-existent for years since pleurisy in 2005 and I have not needed my inhalers at all. Then came pregnancy number 2...

4 weeks ago I got sent home with a pregnancy related migrain, went to bed for the afternoon and woke up completely breathless (I had been absolutely fine when I went to work!) I went to the doctors who prescribed me with antibiotics and I got new inhalers just to be covered in case my asthma flared up as mine were out of date. I went back to the doctors the following week as my breathing hadn't improved and my peakflow was hovering around 250-280 (my best has been 484). I was prescribed steroids and made an appointment with asthma nurse who prescribed me Seretide as well as my ventolin.

I gave this 10 days to start seeing an improvement but there was none so went back to asthma nurse who referred me to the doctor. He prescribed antibiotics and steroids last Friday in the hope that together they would clear anything there and asked me back on Monday. Yesterday I went back and as there had been no improvement they are now talking about admitting me into hospital. Obviously i'd rather avoid this so am currently trying omeprozole for indigestion to see if that's aggrivating my asthma but I have to go back Friday and if not improved i'm being admitted.

Has anyone else had anything similar - whether pregnant or not?! What will they do in hospital that I can't do at home? Is there anything else anyone can think of I can ask about? I'm at a complete loss cos my asthma has never been this bad!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Replies to: Uncontrolled asthma and pregnancy

Butterbean

18 Apr 12

12:53pm

Thanks for the reply Charlie!

I'm pretty sure I dont have an infection as 2 lots of antibiotics haven't helped I just can't get my peak flow up and doing anything physical just leads to me becoming breathless and coughing. If I sit still I feel fine (well not breathing 'normally' but not out of breath). I'm kinda at a loss cos my asthma hasn't been this bad since 2005 and that was due to the infection causing pleursy but before that my asthma wasn't a factor in my life since I was a child! apart from a few more tests i'm not sure what hospital can do - as long as I dont move, my asthma symptoms are under control. I'm just dreading them saying there's nothing else medically they can do so I have to sit at home on rest for next 5 months!

Pregnany so far has been fine, I'll hopefully find out what i'm having on 17th May - can't wait so I can make it a little more real for my 2 year old!

charlie_warlie

17 Apr 12

10:09pm

Hey butterbean!!

Welcome the the website!! Hope its as useful to you as it has been for me!! Ill apologise now if I am of no hope at all, I just like to chat and ramble!!

How is your pregnacy otherwise (just me being noset), do you know what your having yet??!!

Anyway, with regards to your post, I have been on omeprozole now for over a year to help try and sort reflux as my docs found this was a trigger for me!! (and if by chance you have a baby with a lot of hair on there head unfortunalty your going to suffer from really bad heartburn, so this could be a great precaution for you).

On the note about hospital, its hard to say really without physically seeing how bad you are (as a medical perspective~not saying I would be able to tell you etc) but throwing out some suggestions they could give you nebulisers and iv antibiotics to attack the infection hard!

Have you been having your inhalers through a spacer to see if that makes things any better at all??

Hope I havnt bored you or not helped to much or taught you how to suck and egg, you can never tell how much someone knows or not or how much they want to know!!

Hope you get better soon and enjoy the rest of ur pregnancy!!

Xx

[Hidden]

Hi there,

I've never been pregnant before, but my asthma specialist says that in 1/3 of cases asthma stays the same as before, 1/3 gets worse, and 1/3 gets better. I can have pretty bad asthma myself, but it has changed some over the years, and it still surprises me how much it can get in my way. I hope you are starting to feel better. One thing they can do in hospital that they can't do when you're at home, is keep an eye on you until they're satisfied that you're feeling well enough to be on your own. I've been sent home many times with massive amounts of asthma meds, and found out the hard way, that sometimes it's a better idea to have someone else around when it gets that complicated. Take care.

Bee

[midgie82]

Hi!

Sounds like you're having a rough time of it. Sorry I can't offer any helpful advice, my asthma disappears when I'm pregnant and I get pre-eclampsia instead... I am Sending lots of hugs though x x