Itch inside chest

[CarrollLewis]

Still trying to sort out what happened to me last April. I spent a month being miserable after participating in a protest march. The inside of my chest itched. The itch was similar in intensity and quality to the feel of poison oak or poison ivy on skin. Every inhalation and every exhalation drove me crazy with the itch. The only relief was to sit so quietly (or meditate) that my breathing was reduced to almost nothing. The GP said it was not in my lungs, so I wasn't going to die. He told me to take an extra few days of prednisone and sent me home. I wasn't better after a few days, so I called my asthma/allergy doctor's office. The doctor wasn't available so I saw the NP, who said it was an asthma flare, and put me on a nebulizer with albuterol. 2 weeks later, I felt a bit better, but still pretty awful, but the PF reading was above my average, so the NP said the nebulizer was working, and kept me on it. That much albuterol made me jumpy, and exacerbated the work stress I was already under, and my chest still felt massively irritated. I was working from home instead of going into the office because I couldn't stand the walk to/from the train. A week or two later I finally saw the asthma/allergy doctor, who said it sounded more like allergy than asthma, and told me to take extra antihistamines. I did, and it finally cleared up, but I don't know whether the antihistamines did the trick, or whether it was just over. The irritation + the albuterol jumpiness + nebulizer interruptions + work stress affected my work performance, so they dismissed me! Still trying to understand whether what I experienced was asthma or allergy, and what may have triggered it, because I never want to go through that again. Also annoying when doctors / NPs think everything is fine because of good PF readings and stethoscope readings, when the patient feels miserable.