Hi everyone, I am new here but glad to have found this forum. I have had asthma since I was a baby and it has always been really well controlled. I would get a chest infection in the winter and be given antibiotics and usually recover within a week or two. Not this time. I became ill last November with a tight chest and a cough. Saw my GP who said I was definitely wheezy and prescribed amoxillicin (it never works!) and steroids as he said I had a chest infection. I did not think I had a chest infection but I did as I was told. He also signed me off work for 10 days. I took the medication regularly but at the end of the course, I felt worse if anything. Spoke to another doctor in the practice who signed me off for a week but told me NOT to take the reserve antibiotics and steroids. A few says later, I felt absolutely dreadful. I had a temperature, chills, sweats, very bad wheezing and tightness but still not coughing up anything. Another visit to the GP, another dose of steroids and now prescribed amoiclav. I asked if I could have pneumonia. Told no. Signed off work for another two weeks. At the end of these medications, I actully felt worse. Phoned the doctor and she was so worried, she saw me the next day. By now I was coughing up thick green muck and this was after the antiobiotics. I asked her if I could have pneumonia as I had all the symptoms. She disagreed again but admitted she didn't know what other treatment to give me as I had been given everything on her chart of interventions....reallly reasurring that was!
She advised me to buy a nebuliser after the one in the doctors relieved my symptoms. This I did and she prescribed me salbutamol and atrovent nebules. I needed the nebuliser three or four times a day but after Christmas but managed to get it down to once a day just before I was due to go back to work in the New Year. However, my wheezing was still really bad and eventully I spoke to Asthma.Org.UK. The nurse was wonderful. She suggested that I should have been given a higher dose of steroids for a longer period of time. So, I saw my doctor for the 5th time. Mentioned pneumonia again. She disagreed again but she did prescribe the steroids. By now I had been off work for 8 weeks. She finally decided to send me for an X-ray and refer me to a Chest Clinic. The steroids seemed to make a little bit of a difference at the beginning but nothing really helped apart from the nebuliser. The X-ray results came back saying haziness and scarring on the base of my right lung (where I had had all the pain). I went back to work on a phased return but as soon as I got into the office (which is dusty and has hot air vent heating) my breathing got worse. Struggled to last through the day but did it somehow but only because my partner drove me too and from work every day.
I finally saw the Consultant how threw his hands up in horror that I was still on the nebuliser and the steroids and advised me to get off both as soon as I could. He prescribed a new inhaler Fostair 200/6 instead of Symbicort 200 which has always suited me really well. He said I most probably had pneumonia but it was too late to treat now. He ordered bloods to be taken and a CT scan which I had two days ago but don't know the results. I have bought air purifiers for home and work but am still wheezy and exhausted. Also, still need the nebuliser in the mornings but I only take half of the dose. I have now been ill for 3months and never ever have I felt this bad. I can't walk anywhere without gasping for breath and I am constantly exhausted. I am sorry to go on for so long but I needed to get this off my chest (pardon the pun!). I am nearly 60 and am really angry that I have been consistently misdiagnosed and think it is probable that I now have damage to my lungs as well. Anybody else had any experiences like this?
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