looked on my record and a doctor put in 2013 “acute asthma” what does this mean im still so scared 😔
looking on record : looked on my record... - Asthma Community ...
looking on record
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Shannon97
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EmmaF91Community Ambassador
And what treatment did you get for this acute asthma episode? Nebs? Prednisolone tablets? Were you SoB? Did you cough/wheeze? Was your PF low? Did you go into hospital with it? Did you have a cold but keep saying asthma?
The word acute just means ‘flare’. True acute asthma attacks you recognise yourself and remember (esp if you’ve only had 1).
If you keep complaining about unresolving symptoms and say you have asthma that is what they put. Especially back then during the ‘every child has asthma’ period of medicine.
Now they’re working on the premise that it’s not asthma at all. You have reduced/stopped preventer and had no worsening of tightness nor escalation of other asthma symptoms. Tightness is very common anxiety. Were you stressed in 2013? Back then you were 16 any Pregnancy/family/work/school/exam worries?
I had severe anemia back then... should I be worried that it will return or should I just identify it was due to recurrent heavy nosebleeds which have since stopped?
I also know 4 people who got diagnosed with chronic fatigue aged 12 during/after a virus. Aged 12.5 they never had an issue. Do you think they genuinely had CFS - a debilitating, long term illness... or did they just have 1 bad virus which tired them out back when CFS was all the rage? As someone with CSF (diagnoses aged 11/12) I still have flares and bad periods. I talk to them and they forget they even had it (like you did with asthma).
i dont even remember 😔 there was so much going on when i look it online it says serve asthma..now its worrying me even more and putting more thoughts in my head xx
Just cause it is says acute that does not mean severe. Severe acute requires hospital. That’s when you can’t talk walk eat sleep due to symptoms. Have a PF lower than 50%, have worsening SoB. If you were severe acute you would remember. If it was an asthma attack you would know.
I have had hundreds (if not thousands) of asthma attacks of varying levels. I remember my first ones (the ones at school, during PE, whilst on holiday). It is only after severe attacks became a daily occurrence for me that I got used to them and forget them (because it became the life-threatening attacks that I remember). So I repeat unless you have memory issues you would remember a proper attack esp if it was only 6 years ago.
Stop trawling through websites and prev medical notes it won’t help you it just winds you up. Trust the system. Trust you are ok because you are. You may think you’re not, but you are
And speaking for the majority on the site (I have seen enough comments and had enough PMs to feel like I can say this) it is very frustrating for those of us truly having issues, struggling daily, living in/out hosp constantly, to then read that ‘you’re scared cause parents told you you had asthma as a kid and once a GP wrote acute asthma’ when you don’t remember any of it and had no treatment and Rn all you have is tightness which hasn’t changed at all with increase ventolin use or reduced preventor inhaler as this indicates it’s really not asthma esp as only 1 symptom which is very very common in anxiety.
It’s also upsetting that you have posted how you’re worried/scared/upset with normal results from all your tests. I had to fight for all the tests you have been allowed, and I really wish they had been as clear as yours are. I know your scared but please can you give us a break?
Talk to the anxiety pages, wait until your counselling appt, we have been supportive but we aren’t an anxiety page and it really has been constant.
If you do start to get proper asthma issues (ie more than just tightness, with triggers and relievers) please feel free to return. Or maybe post an update when you’re feeling better and the tightness is gone but please stop with the every 2/3 day posting.
So I don’t mean to be mean but please give us a break and think about those on here really struggling before you post again. I’m sorry your anxious but we can’t help with that
Have you nothing better to do than keep going on incessantly about asthma inspite of all the responses you have had and the fact that you have had an inhaler stopped by your GP with no apparent ill effect?
Get your anxiety sorted out please and give those of us really coping with lung disease a break.
Hi Shannon,
It’s almost impossible to stop thinking about something if you haven’t got something else to think about in its place. That’s the secret.
Perhaps watch all six seasons of LOST. Or if you must worry, worry about children that are unloved, or un-fed, and spend time wondering if there’s anything you can do for them. Or join a club where you will meet people.
Find something else to put in your mind.
I think your just winding people up on here. You want to get a grip of yourself pet and get yourself a life. Your actually getting on my nerves now. You clearly don't have asthma and You want to count yourself lucky for that. Maybe you might have health anxiety or whatever but you should stop this constant posting about something you know fine well you haven't got.
I cannot believe how rude people are on here, everyone suffers in life and yet some act like they have it worse than anyone else. I hope you find out what's causing the tightness Shannon and get better soon.
I don’t doubt that she is struggling, nor do I think the tightness is made up. However, over the last 3-4 months, of 2-3 posts a week (a lot of which she has since deleted), as a forum we have been very supportive. I know a lot of these users have given her advice, suggestions and support on a lot of pervious posts, however she has not listened/followed this advice, just keeps posting that she’s worried/scared. If this was an anxiety forum it would be different, but it’s not. Everyone on here has their own struggles but sometimes it seems like Shannon also forgets this, esp as this is an asthma page. And when just focusing on asthma, it’s sad to say but some people DO have it worse than others (and as an asthma forum, focusing on asthma that is a legitimate fact, we are not trying to say ‘I am suffering worse that you’, just ‘my asthma is worse than yours’ of that makes sense). My prev post (where I have brought up other conditions) I was trying to demonstrate to her that a) doctors prev diagnosis’s can be incorrect (esp in children) and b) things do change over time and can clear up.
I think it’s just hit a point where people can’t cope with her anxiety anymore, as it has been an unremitting and constant force, and so they are getting frustrated, blunt and yes rude, but solely cause they are at the end of their tether, and have been constantly ignored when they’ve tried to help.
I think we do all hope that Shannon starts to feel better soon, and that her tightness (and anxiety about it) calms down, but she needs to listen to her doctors and stop bombarding us with her worries and fears and anxieties, especially when it’s clear the doctor does not think it is asthma. As it’s been suggested multiple times to her, just straight up asking her GP if they think she has asthma will give her the answer she craves, but she hasn’t asked them and won’t accept that the fact that asthma treatments (and stopping them) has not changed her problem, hen it’s not going to be asthma causing the issue.
Anyway I hope that explains why people have become more and more blunt with her. Again I do hope she gets the help she needs, but it’s not here where she’ll find the answers, and it’s the anxiety pages where she’ll find the best support and more understanding.
Anxiety and asthma sometimes go hand in hand. If people don't have anything constructive to say then don't say anything. Nobody is forced to reply to anyone. It's people acting this way on forums that scares people away from asking questions.
Yes they can be related, it happens quite a lot, but equally they can consist as separate entities. And early on in these posts, people were supporting Shannon like this was the case (both asthma and anxiety), however the more she posted about how scared/worried she was cause her ‘parents just told (her) that she had asthma as a child’, the more she told of all her recent (and multiple) tests being clear, no aggravating or relieving factors, no other symptoms, the clearer it became that asthma wasn’t an issue for her, but everything was being anxiety driven. Her GP has diagnosed her with possible costochondritis, and has stopped her asthma medications (to no worsening of symptoms), and has also put her forwards to counselling (which she is waiting for).
However she then goes onto google, or an asthma FB page or here, reads something and scares herself by incorrectly applying asthma information to her situation, then posts her fears on here. Like looking through notes from 6 years ago and thinking that means she must be really ill now.
People have given a lot of constructive feedback (such as explaining why she doesn’t need to worry about xyz, the ins and outs of asthma vs anxiety, where to get help, and explaining how to correctly apply information that she’s scared herself with), and a lot of support/shared personal experiences with their own anxiety etc and the frustration comes when she doesn’t listen after she’s been told stuff multiple times, and doesn’t stop looking things up cause she ‘can’t stop’, which is a honestly a health anxiety issue.
No, no one is force to reply to posts, but when your feed is full up with her posts it’s hard not to get involved (I had a day a few weeks ago when every 2nd/3rd post was by her).
To the people who are to scared to post their own questions, maybe they should look at other posts, (especially other anxiety and asthma related ones if that’s their main concern) to see how we act as a community normally. We are a very supportive community, with a wide range of experience/level of asthma/knowledge and are always happy to help answer/support someone struggling.
Personally it took until her 16th post in 3 months before I started to get frustrated, but I do try to always be objective with information, and constructive with comments whoever I respond to (even now when I know my underlying emotions came out). And signposting Shannon to the anxiety pages and trying to suggest she backs off on the asthma ones is the right thing to do, as these pages are just worrying her more.
As a side note I know of a few users who are to scared to post things just in case what they say gets misinterpreted and misapplied by Shannon and so makes her feel worse (even when the poster wants/needs advice/support themselves).
But we do all hope that Shannon does feel better soon, but it’s draining when she constantly posts the same things, which would be better on the anxiety pages (which she has done, to more sympathy, and had people with similar experiences try to empathise with her)
Just click on Shannon’s name. You’ll see she’s been posting the exact same posts on multiple forums for 3 years. Often the same worry unchanged, 3 years of it. Yet, when asked “are you able to get treatment for your health anxiety dear?”, it’s crickets. That’s the long and short of it. Shannon, hon, are you getting any help for your health anxiety?
in reply to pepapod
Exactly. It has been three years: she admits she has health anxiety but won’t get treatment for it. She claims to be worried because nobody is telling her if she has or hasn’t got asthma but she also hasn’t, in three years, bothered to ask the doctor or nurse in what seem to have been near-weekly appointments. She has posted the same things repeatedly over three years in multiple asthma groups on here and Facebook, lung disease groups including a lung cancer forum, heart attack, meningitis, stroke, and many other forums.
As someone with a special interest in factitious disorders I’m beginning to wonder if she might have anxiety but intentionally be avoiding getting treatment so that she can post in numerous forums to unsuspecting strangers that she’s terrified about this that and the other, in order to get the outpouring of concerned and reassuring comments that come with this, only to disappear when people start getting suspicious.
I think maybe Shannon is just looking for attention, and if everyone stopped replying to her she might get bored and move on, just a thought but perhaps worth a try.
woah so being worried and not knowing where i stand is attetion seeking and this is meant to be supportive..thanks..wherever i go i just get told im attention seeking..you all say i haven’t got it but i havent had it in writing?..and i was looking on my records yesterday and in 2013 they put “acute asthma”
Why do you think it is that, as you put it, WHEREVER you go people think you are attention seeking? What more could people here say to you that hasn't already been said? Try being very grateful you do not have chronic breathing problems!
The people being rude will never change. You have a right to ask for help on forums but from the doctor is best or someone you can talk to in real life. I haven't been on here long and doubt I'll be back. Definitely not a helpful place.
Shannon has a long history of anxiety related 'health issues', has posted on other forums, has had a great deal of advice and support which she persists in ignoring. It is not that we don't care, just that she isn't helping herself. Any indication of rudeness is simply frustration on the part of those of us really living with chronic lung disease.This forum is a very helpful place which I hope you might come to appreciate if you decide to stay. I think you will find that responses to other posts are in no way rude.
Shannon's was one of the first couple of posts I came across and I can honestly say people's reaction to it and lack of empathy has put me off wanting to post here. Frustration due to having severe lung disease is understandable but I think it's better to not reply to someone if it's just to be rude or negative. How is it helpful?
We've tried all manner of approaches. Whatever is said, in whatever way, she simply posts the same thing and doesn't ever actually ask a doctor the question she wants the answer to. It's like she doesn't want to actually get help. So being extra kind, sympathetic, etc, hasn't helped. People are frustrated because we've tried help and are just being ignored.
I agree with twinkly29 but I mean no offence to you. As I said, Shannon has a long history with long standing members of the forum.
in reply to Wesawerr
Please do post your questions! Shannon’s case is very specific and if you are a newcomer to this forum then understandably you haven’t got the background that members who have been here a bit longer have. If you click on her name you will see the countless times the people posting ‘harsh’ replies on this thread have posted kind, gentle, supportive replies to the same questions Shannon has been asking across multiple forums for years now. She claims to want answers but has never even asked her doctor or nurse straight out if she does or doesn’t have asthma.
Wesawerr in reply to
Even if Shannon doesn't have asthma or hasn't gotten proper help from the doctor for years isn't a good reason to be harsh to her. Even if people think she's trolling, it is better to ignore than to post something more rude than needed.
The reason I say this is because I wanted to post myself but this made me have second thoughts. I have asthma myself and anxiety and they both feed off each other.
in reply to Wesawerr
Like I say, please do post. Most people on this forum are very understanding of anxiety and many of us suffer from it ourselves. Like I say, Shannon’s case is very particular and please believe me when I say that it took me a while to get to the stage I’m at with regards to her posts, which is also the case for most of the other commenters in this thread and which you can see if you read through her posts even just on this app/site. I can’t speak for the others but I am a staunch believer in looking at things from all angles and being the ‘devil’s advocate’ as it were, and will never let an inaccuracy however small slide simply because I agree with everything else someone has posted so it has taken a lot for me to get to the point where I no longer spend ages writing long supportive replies to Shannon with many links, numbers, and suggestions.
While I have my theories as to what is going on with her, of course I can’t base anything on those without clear proof. But even assuming she does have extremely severe health anxiety around the idea that she had asthma as a child and is no longer sure if she has it or not (which she could ask her doctor or nurse in her near-weekly appointments for tests), we have all repeatedly given her heaps of advice and support, the same which was given to her when she was posting the same things three years ago, and actually there is no longer anything we can do. She can either take our advice, or not: it really is only up to her now.
I do think we should stop replying rather than feeding into whatever is going on by replying the same things, but there is also the issue of newcomers to the site not realising what has been going on, and wasting much of their time the same way others have already, only to be saying the same things people have been saying literally hundreds of times over three years. I wonder if there is an administrator or a member who is here a lot who could simply post one comment along the lines of “Ask your doctor whether you do or don’t have asthma and then get help for your health anxiety.” and leave it at that?
Perhaps a little rudeness might push her into proper action?
What an uncaring thing to say. If you don’t like what she is doing just scroll by. I Don’t use this ite very much I have Asthma and COPD. And the BLF site are a lot more caring than the people on this site .
For goodness sake go and ask an actual doctor outright.
No one's being rude. She's winding people up she knows she is as well. Anyway Shannon. Do you use another name on a site in here?
Most people on this site are chronic asthma sufferers; in other words, they have it all the time, in varying degrees. A diagnosis of acute asthma suggests it is NOT a permanent condition, which lends weight to the fact that you have been taken off the meds. I think you are catastrophising, and reading the diagnosis the wrong way; most people on this site would give an arm and a leg to know that their asthma was only acute, and will therefore go away.
Generally in medicine 'acute' means relatively short-lived, while 'chronic' means long lived. Apart from chronic asthma, I have lymphoedema in my lower legs, permanent atrial fibrillation, an enlarged prostate and chronic urticaria.
In the past I have sometimes been anxious about my ailments but generally just get on with life. I can remember in June 2018 taking my car in for a service to a garage in a neighbouring village and deciding to walk the 2 miles back home. That included a long hill down to a stream and then a very steep hill upwards. I worried about that hill. What if I collapsed on the way, but it just took a long time, with many stops and more reliever inhaler use than normal.
I had similar questions last September when I went to a First World War cemetery in France. I went on a bus at midday, walked half a mile up to the cemetery to lay flowers on my uncle's grave on the centenary of his death, walked back to the village and then discovered my mobile phone wasn't working, so I was faced with two alternatives, wait 3 hours for a bus, or walk 5 miles back to the hotel. I chose the latter. Again I wondered what would have happened if i couldn't make it, but did, quite slowly, managing to get blisters on both feet and stung by nettles.
It is very easy to be anxious. I wasn't keen on the idea of being in a train under the channel but there was no sensation of going downhill under the sea. There was nothing to it, except for a great experience.
Anxiety is terrible. My father had breakdowns when he was 50, and again when he was 60, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
I'm 74 and love life. I know that life is finite and what will be, will be, but in the meantime I try to be kind to people. I hope you lose your anxiety Shannon97.
Ask your doctor or nurse if you do or don’t have asthma. It has been three years now.
Just seen on Facebook that you’ve finally been told that you definitely do not have asthma. Good news, hopefully now you can get the help you actually need.
