After 10 days of using too much ventolin ie every 2 hours, constant coughing and sleeping upright in a chair culminating in a very bad weekend I ventured to the doctor's. Why didn't I go to A and E as my husband wanted, well the doctor on my last visit said it can't be asthma as no wheeze, I felt like I was wasting his time and didn't want to go through that again. My surgery had always been good but the first thing the nurse specialist said was it was a puzzle as I wasn't wheezing. I explained my symptoms in between coughing and said I don't present with a wheeze. She never looked at me, constant typing and asking me strange questions, in the end she said she'd give me the same as I'd had before, oral steroids and antibiotics. She said there was a crackle in my lungs but it was difficult to hear with my constant coughing and could I stop honestly you couldn't write it. I was coughing up phlegm and asked if she wanted to test it rather than me using a tissue but said looked disgusted and offered me more tissues. Strange appointment and now feeling better I checked my medical records to see that she was filling in s sepsis test form with a comment stating that I was not sure it I had asthma or hayfever - if she'd bothered to check my records she would see I take medication for both. Sorry rant over but just feel so annoyed, she had cheek to tell me to take asthma seriously as it can be dangerous. When will they learn that we don't all wheeze.
Cough not wheeze: After 10 days of... - Asthma Community ...
Cough not wheeze
I had the same problem
I work with 2 others that have had the same problems, so annoying 🙁
We are 3
I never wheeze. I have Cough variant asthma and it’s high time that it was accepted that not all asthmatics wheeze.
I almost never have wheezing
I also have no wheeze but have had test and. It is asthma , I also don't cough either ,I'm still trying to get it under control , I've been ok but , its getting cold now (I'm in Australia ) but I'm still not wheezing , you don't always have too have a wheeze or cough , I would try if you can to get another opinion its hard I know.
I never wheeze either, my chest just goes tight and silent when I get bad. I carry a plan from my resp consultant stating I don't wheeze and oxygenate well but can deteriorate rapidly. This was to prevent the problem with young drs and nurses who don't know me and think all asthmatics wheeze. I am in A&E and admitted regularly. Still got a consultant in A&E a few weeks ago who said no wheeze, oxygen good so not asthma, you can go home. Pointed out plan ( which he ignored) and that another attack building ( was in resuss at time). In the end we asked him to speak to resp consultants who all know me well and he said' I'm a consultant I dont defer to anyone!'.....
I experience the same as you 17Rose. It is so frustrating at docs and A&E when you know you are going downhill yet they just don’t take it seriously. It has put me off going to A&E until almost too late before now as I was so traumatised by a previous experience.
Bearing in mind how many have asthma it astonishes me that clinicians still don’t get it that non wheezing asthmatics exist! If I wasn’t feeling so grim at the time I would laugh every time they say “take a deeper breath” when they can hear nothing with my tiny breaths silent breathing! “That’s the problem” is always my reply to that one!!
My asthma is a cough or just a really tight chest, luckily doctor have now seems to understand that not all asthma is a wheeze. I can relate to post.
Why were you taking Ventolin so often. Don't you have a preventer inhaler? I used to think I needed to use my blue inhaler daily to open up my lungs so that the preventer inhaler could get deep down into my lungs, but I was persuaded to only use the preventer regularly on its own twice daily and it has reduced the need for the blue inhaler to once or twice a week.
I only wheeze when I have a respiratory infection when steroids and antibiotics are needed.
Getting the right preventer inhaler for you is most important.
I have been treated for asthma for 45 years, now aged 73, and also have permanent, but now asymptomatic, atrial fibrillation, lymphoedema in my lower legs and chronic urticaria.
Hi I take Fostair 200/6 preventative inhaler twice a day plus montelukast and fexofenadine for my hayfever. The reason I was taking my ventolin inhaler was that my asthma was out of control not sure why but it happens, but as you never see the same person twice at the practice I have to go through the rigmarole of explaining tight chest, breathlessness, constant coughing not brought under control with ventolin, increased mucus but no wheeze every time so it has to be really bad to seek help. I know that all these symptoms are leading to a really bad attack but it can be infuriating and scary for your loved ones.
Your records should be computerised so there should be no need to repeat your problems if you see a different doctor. The doctor should be able to see your history on his/her computer terminal.
I am not medically qualified but from my own asthma experience it appears to me that your current preventer inhaler is not preventing so if I was in your position I would be asking for a change.
I was put on DuoResp Spiromax, 320/9 Budesonide / formoterol fumarate dihydrate as part of a cost saving programme. It is the best and most efficient preventer inhaler I've ever had. It's dry powder and breath activated and it works wonderfully, but as no two asthmatics are alike it might not be for you.
Hi, it's extremely frustrating isn't it? I also 'only' have the cough and very, very rarely wheeze, only if I've been coughing non-stop for ages. I also have hayfever, I tend to need my blue inhaler in the pollen season along with antihistamines. But still, it's only a cough. Seems most people don't take it as seriously. 🙄
As long as we take it seriously to keep ourselves safe, we just need to keep educating the 'professionals'.
You are so right Hiltay, only recently I became so dissolutioned by not being taken seriously that I was prepared to ignore deteriorating symptoms since healthcare professionals weren’t taking it seriously, but the reality is it wouldn’t have any impact on them if I took it too far, the only people it would impact on are myself and those close to me.
“Keep ourselves safe” is spot on and what I needed to hear too, so thank you. X
I had a so-called asthma specialist nurse tell me I didn't HAVE asthma because I didn't wheeze, though I've been treated for it all my life. Mark me as not impressed. After she had spent an hour on her lecture, with me arguing with her, and my growing increasingly angry, I told her "Thank you for wasting my time, as well as yours," and left.
You need to see a doctor. And I know it's hard but push!
The sepsis form - there's been a big push here in UK on sepsis lately. The nurses, mostly, mean well, but they are ultimately form-fillers.
She said there was a crackle in your lungs. She SHOULD have followed up on that clue and at the very least asked a doctor to listen.
How are you doing now?
Thank you, I have oral steroids and antibiotics so am feeling human again but I just felt so annoyed about the way it happened. When you ring for a doctor's appointment you don't realise that you are getting a nurse until you turn up and it's too late, last time I had a trainee who couldn't advise me as she wasn't qualified and she suggested I made an appointment to see a doctor - I thought I had. Next time I will make sure I am seeing someone qualified.
Oh, I do agree. The NHS is breaking apart at the seams, and they think they can deliver by putting nurses in to do a doctor's job. All I can say on the "who you will be seeing" question is assertiveness - look it up, there are books and courses. If you book an appointment, then ask "exactly who will I be seeing" and they have to tell you, and all the guff about specialist nurses flies out the window when you think how much training a GP gets before he can become a doctor, and how little training these specialist nurses have had - in the case of one of my diabetes "specialist nurses" I had attended an 8-morning, so effectively 4-day course on diabetes to become what they call an "expert patient" and the diabetes nurse my practice sent me to, knew FAR less than me, and was still supposed to prescribe for me.
Main thing, I'm glad you're feeling better.
I so relate to everything about the no wheezing, so frustrating & quite frankly dangerous. I only have pollen related asthma - so only suffer for around 14 weeks - but I am very lucky to be under the care of a chest specialist & an amazing allergy department. I still have massive flare ups requiring steroids, but avoid A&E if at all possible.
You couldn't make it up could you ? I've had the same in the past. Maybe a letter to the parctice manager/hospital would underline that we arn't all the same !
Still breathlessness and coughing so rang for follow up appointment today and asked for someone who knows about asthma to be told the person I saw last time was an asthma nurse as she does annual checks I stood my ground and asked for someone else and was told nothing available this week and to try a walk in or A&E or keep trying every morning in case of a cancellation. Speechless and that's not due to breathlessness!
Yup, I rarely wheeze and am often fobbed off with 'it's not asthma', I end up presenting too late because I cant deal with the GPs who say that!
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