Light at the end of the tunnel...I hope

[Lotti_321-]

Some may know that I’ve had a real fight on my hands; from not having a plan, to it all being in my head, to vcd and to just being fobbed off.

The past 4 weeks have been hell, with my ‘asthma’ flaring, an attack, 3weeks of pred and a subsequent infection.

On Wednesday I had a bike test whilst they looked at my vocal cords. To try and push me and bring on an attack to show vcd or to induce chest symptoms. To help get a better idea on what’s kicking everything off. My consultant wouldn’t let me do the bike part after reading the recent discharge letter from a&E and hearing how ill I’ve been, as didn’t want to push the chest. I insisted we still looked at the vocal cords and form a plan, as I’m desperate after 9+ courses of steroids in the past year.

The good news is my vocal cords were perfect (at least something is!). My consultant is happy now and is confident that my symptoms are coming from my chest. He’s arranging a 3 month trial of Kenalog- a steroid injection. I’m slightly daunted at the thought of steroid injections and the side effects and there’s not much on internet in relation to asthma with it.

But I am relieved that (fingers crossed) we all seem to be in agreement and are trying to treat it. There is hope!

[Js706]

Glad that you have more of a plan in place now!

I’ve not had kenalog injections myself but have spoken to quite a few people who have and I think on the whole they’ve found they had less side effects on the kenalog than when on prednisolone so fingers crossed that will be the case for you too!

[Lotti_321- in reply to Js706]

I hope so! Do you know whether, if it’s something that works they keep giving me them after 3 months? I don’t know a lot about other than it being a steroid injection.

[Js706 in reply to Lotti_321-]

I think it depends on the dose you have - if I remember rightly there’s a limit on how much you can have within a certain amount of time (although this may be wrong or vary between centres!)