What are your exacerbation symptoms?

[MrsCMK]

Hi all.

I’ve been asking quite a few questions in here lately because I’m really trying my best to get to understand my body/what it is trying to tell me and also some of the more uncommon facts about asthma.

Unfortunately, I had an attack yesterday afternoon and then another this morning. I luckily did not have to get emergency treatment but did take myself straight to my GP surgery who saw me straight away and prescribed course of pred and some antibiotics. I’m laying here now feeling a little sorry for myself trying to piece together what happened and have learned that my body has been screaming at me with signs since Thursday but I missed them (well, I didn’t pay enough attention).

I guess my questions are as follows:

- What warning signs (symptoms) does your body give you when you’re experiencing a flare?

- What symptoms do you experience when you’re having an attack?

- How does your body feel post-attack?

For me, looking back I can see that my exacerbation started on Thursday. I was feeling hypersensitive to all of my triggers and was struggling to sleep. Yesterday (in the build up to my first attack), I felt extremely grouchy, confused and had a sore throat (I also strangely had a numb tongue). Then bam, hello breathlessness! As per, I was fatigued afterwards but when I woke this morning, I felt “ok” and went about my business- error, I should know better! Early morning during my commute, I felt the same symptoms as yesterday, except I knew what was about to happen (as the previous attack was still pretty fresh) and was so angry with myself that I allowed that to happen again.

Despite being annoyed with myself, I feel so fatigued, my muscles are sore and I have horrendous pains in my chest. All of this could have been avoided had I paid more attention to my body.

It’s safe to say that I’ll be a lot more careful going forward 🤦🏽‍♀️

[hilary39]

Before: I yawn a lot and can’t get full breaths and I feel irritable. If the attack is kicked off by an allergen, my whole body feels inflamed and I sneeze a ton also and can’t breathe through my nose.

During: I can’t get full breaths no matter how deeply I breathe and I feel panicky and out of it and have to use my ventolin but it doesn’t always help. Sometimes attacks can last for a few days. I usually go to the ER and then start prednisone if it’s a bad attack.

After: recovery can take weeks or even months. My lungs remain super sensitive and painful and I feel tired and grouchy.

[MrsCMK in reply to hilary39]

I find it really interesting at how attack’s that are essentially the same can vary so broadly from person to person. I also find it interesting to hear of other people’s experiences because I’ve learnt that some signs that my body send me (that I would never link to a pending attack) are so obvious once I am aware.

Thank you for sharing and I hope you’re keeping well ☺️

[MrsCMK]

It’s definitely asthma.