So I was digagnosed with self induced asthma last year, only triggered by swimming pools; not great since I swim competively and train 14 hours a week. I use the brown inhaler twice a day and was told to use the blue one "when needed"...
On occasions, sometimes when the pool temperature rises or we train particularly hard, my throat and chest starts to have a weird pins-and-needles sort of feeling and the urge to cough, this progresses into pain in my chest when inhaling.
This has happened on multiple occassions, such as today, and even after taking my blue inhaler, it is still painful for up to a couple of days after. Am I leaving it too late, or not using enough of the medication, or is it not asthma at all?
Other kids at squad have shown similar coughing and chest pain on the same days, but the doctor seemed quite dissmissive of it. I didn't have any form of asthma a few years ago and it's only gotten worse when I swim more, so could swimming be damaging me or could it just be that I was going to have asthma anyways?
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DoodleBug11
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Sorry to hear that ... but firstly - Don't stop swimming! Good for you, it's good for asthma.
I'm not sure how old you are, but you are old enough to swim 14 hours a week so you should know the proper term :-). Commonly it is called EIA (Exercise Induced Asthma) or the newer name is EIB (Exercise Induced Bronchospasm). It is not "self induced".
The solution is simple - take 1 puff of the Ventolin (blue) either 5 or 10 minutes before you jump in the pool. Try both ways and see which you like better. Also a slow warmup does wonders before you start sprinting.
See my other post - most docs don't seem to know about this but it's well documented.
You can also take note of your surroundings: Grass/trees around a pool maybe you are developing slight allergy that will aggravate it, but a lot is caused by temperature and humidity change. If you notice it happens more at a pool that has a lot of greenery around vs others that don't then that's a clue.
If the preventive puff works well over time maybe you can reduce the brown (Qvar) but don't stop suddenly.
Many olympic swimmers have EIA it's common - you're in good company.
Thanks for the advice, I had heard that it was called excercise induced , but the doctor I saw called it self induced (since it was caused by my lifestyle choices and isn't bought on by most excercise, only swimming in chlorine pools)
I will start taking the Ventolin before training , thanks!
I'm sorry to hear your suffering in the pool when obviously it's very important to you,
I too swam as a youngster and always my chest would worsen afterwards, my family used to put it down to "a chill" until it was discovered I was allergic to the Chlorine!! So I was never able to use a Chlorine pool again, I was convinced by my niece recently to go & WATCH her compete & within 2hrs of leaving the venue I was in A&E with chest pains, which turned out to be Plurisy (spelling??) caused by irritation brought on by the Chlorine, I was no where near the water!!
So I'm sorry to be so negative but this maybe your problem too, it's best to bring it up with your Consultant who maybe able to clarify through a test, to @ least give you a definitive answer, you don't really want to make what sounds like relatively mild/controlled Asthma into something more debilitating!
Ouch, sorry to hear about your allergy! Fingers crossed that I am not allergic but I will check with the GP.
Thanks for the advice, and good luck too!
Hi DoodleBug11
Sorry to hear you're going through a bad time while swimming.
I ran your query past our nurses team and Shauna, one of our nurses has replied and also has some questions: it sounds like you're describing swimming-only related symptoms it may be that chlorine in the pool is triggering your asthma. Swimming is a great form of exercise for the chest and we don’t want asthma to interfere with this.
If swimming triggers asthma symptoms it could be a sign that your asthma isn't as well-controlled as it could be. Do you know what strength of brown inhaler you are using (is it Clenil?) and are you using a spacer and have you had your technique checked recently?
It may be that you need a different preventer/combination inhaler to help minimise the effects of the pool and give you longer relief. Also, do you have any allergies and or nose symptoms (runny, blocked, itchy nose) as that could be treated with a nasal spray/antihistamine tablet?
As this has happened on multiple occasions and you were previously fine using the same pool, what might have changed (something at the pools? maybe chlorine/chemicals used).
Some general tips:
1.Always have your reliever inhaler with you. If you have asthma symptoms when you exercise, stop, take your reliever inhaler and make sure you wait for your symptoms to go before starting again. As suggested on the thread, some people find taking the reliever before exercise can help.
2.Warm up and warm down before and after exercise with some stretches to help with your flexibility and the range of movement in your joints. A walk or a jog can help to warm up your muscles.
It would be worth keeping a symptom diary to determine your patterns of symptoms and checking peak flows (before and after swimming) to see how affected your airways are. It may be worth considering making an appointment with your GP and bring the diary and peak flow readings to discuss.
If you have more questions, please call our Helpline on 0300 222 5800 (9am-5pm) and speak to one of our asthma nurse specialists.
Yes it is a Clentil, and I take 1 puff with a spacer twice a day. I went to the doctors in January this year, but she didn't check my technique, she did say I might have to increase to two puffs twice a day if necessary.
I don't have any other allergies or take any antihistamines, and the days when it is the worst are when the pool temperature is raised (usually because people complain it is too cold, or when there are hot days like the last few have been) or when they add lots of chlorine usually after someone poops/vomits in the pool and they don't want to empty the whole thing out. I know last Saturday TWO kids pooped within an hour of each other while we were training, they didn't empty it so they increased the chlorine, which could be why they last couple of days have been bad.
I will go to the GP and probably get an increased prescription, and I will start carrying my reliever around.
However, I have taken 4 puffs of my Ventolin since yesterday, but my chest is still painful when inhaling: should I just use more, should I take anti inflammatories, or is there anything else I can do to make it better?
Sorry to be the voice of doom, but if your still experiencing discomfort when inhaling & your Asthma symptoms are worse than "your normal" then I would suggest a chest X-ray, this could be (Pleurisy) irritation in your lungs caused by the Chlorine, as I mentioned I was effected by simply being in the same building as the pool, I subsequently ended up with a persistent infection, so no fun!
So please listen to your body & act on your symptoms, the worse thing an Asthmatic can do is ignore the signs, however if your feeling much better then that's great, wishing you well, Jo x
Hi DoodleBug11
Barbara from our nurse helpline team suggests that your preventer inhaler dose might need adjusting, it's probably easier if you give them a call to go through it your medications and symptoms, you can reach them on 0300 222 5800 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm).
I think everything mentioned here is reasonable, however I'm leaning towards siding with JoBooth on this one now that you say you've taking 4 Ventolin puffs in the last 24 hrs. Reason is that for me (and all I've read and heard) is that EIA is only while you are exercising or while cooling down. Basically once you've showered it's gone which is why doctors never see it. But remember allergens are a co-factor in EIA, as is asthma from other causes that is not properly controlled as mentioned above.
Given that you're new to asthma and your suddenly worsening condition call a medical professional now and go see someone (hopefully you'll get a different doctor/nurse).
I grew up in swim crazy town and I used to get big hayfever attacks getting out of the pool. There was lots of banter whether people were allergic to chlorine I never heard it proved one way or the other. Mine turned out to be a type of bermuda grass around the edge that was common (I got tested) - so some pools had it and others not.
Having said that I just googled chlorine allergy and they say that chloramine is a bigger problem - mixture of chlorine and amonia that gives the strong odor. This sounds much more reasonable - amonia has always irritated my lungs. With asthma you need to be your own scientist: dig around and ask the pool people what they are putting in the various pools and do some experiments at home and figure it out. I think it's always good to know your specific allergens whatever the swimming outcome is.
In the end we're just a bunch of random dudes on the interweb - what do we know?
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