I’ve been diagnosed with asthma for five or six years now, but it’s never been unmanagable. My doctor implied that it’s because of the belly I developed while working as a software engineer (the tummy mass prevents the diaphram from fully expanding?), but I’ve been using albuterol without problem and could exercise fine.
Six months ago, my baby daughter was born. One month later, my asthma condition severely worsened and the albuterol no longer helped or had any effect really. I’m now on several medications (none of which the doc wants, but for insurance’s sake). It’s gotten to the point that I can’t do dishes for more than a few minutes without having an attack and I have to rest for an hour or so to recover.
I recently got put on some new meds and I began to feel better after about a week or two. However, it happened to coincide with the five days that my wife and daughter went to Texas to visit her family (I stayed home). As soon as they got back, my asthma worsened to its previous condiditon. So I guess it wasn’t the meds after all, but must have something to do with my new daughter.
From what I’ve read, asthma can be exacerbated by allergies, so that left me wondering: Could I be allergic to my little girl?
Not your little girl, but maybe baby wipes, baby lotion, soap (you mentioned not being able to wash dishes) or maybe even the stuff they put in disposable diapers. IANAD or anything. Good luck trying to find out what it is. I have mild asthma, likely due to some allergy, but my Dr., or more specifically, my insurance co. won’t do fuck-all about it.
All the baby products I was still being exposed to while she was gone… except perhaps her dirty diapers. The only other thing that was not around was the baby herself and her mom’s breast milk (we bottlefeed it to her and I’m the stay-at-home-dad, so I get a lot of exposure to it).
It’s not the dishwashing soap: That, from what I can figure, is triggered by just standing upright for extended periods of time. I don’t understand it myself… it just seems that after several minutes, the lower part of my back begins aching and I have an attack. This isn’t limited to dishes though.
If my asthma is weight related, well, the funny thing is, I’ve lost weight since my girl was born…
I would disagree that the OP needs a lung specialist at this stage, but what is needed is certainly a physician who’s more knowledgeable about asthma, one who doesn’t blame it on a “belly pushing on a diaphragm”. I’d strongly suggest an allergist. I find they tend to be better with asthma than your average pulmonologist (in my experience, that is).
I also don’t understand the bit about being on meds that the doc doesn’t want him on, but his insurance company does. So color me confused in general.
Overall, it’s pretty unlikely that the asthma is worse due to the new baby.
Basically, see a generalist who’s really good at asthma (sorry, I see felons only these days!) or get in touch with an allergist. Everything posted here consists of wild-ass guesses (including my posts) since none of us has been able to take a decent history on the OP, or do a physical exam or get proper tests run.
Oh yeah doc my line of work is murder on the lungs! Everything’s going great and the flames are dancing like a beauttiful woman y’know, then suddenly I get a whiff of a burning couch and can’t catch my breath. Can you help me with that doc?
Use your rescue inhaler at the first sign of an asthma attack, continue with your maintenance medications, and avoid your asthma triggers, which include fires, and then geh cocken offen yom.
There’s a lot more things which are far more likely to be the trigger than human hair, or any part of the infant itself. And even when human hair is implicated, it is usually due to cat dander in the human hair.
At least that’s what the med literature I’ve read suggests.
I actually started taking albuterol because each winter, I would get a cold and then the coughing would never go away. The first time I went to the doc about it, I was coughing up colored phlegm and he gave me some antibiotics that seemed to take care of it. Since then, the phlegm’s been clear, but the extended coughing still happens, but was controlled mostly by two puffs of albuterol at night and morning. Afterwards, my asthma started and I began puffing it fifteen minutes before any exercise (my doctor told a horror story about his friend’s daughter who would rollerblade around the local lake, and tended not to take her inhaler with her cuz it wasn’t cool and one time she died from an attack while skating and didn’t have her inhaler with her) and that pretty much took care of things. It’s only since a month after my daughter was born that the albuterol has stopped helping and I’ve kinda stopped taking it as an emergency med since it has no effect. The only thing that really seems to help is a so-called “salt pipe”, but I’m not sure if that’s from the salt vapors or just because it tends to regulate my breathing to a certain extent.
I have to say here that my asthma has been… inconsistent. Sometimes, I’ll get an attack from the simplist of things (such as doing dishes); other times, I don’t seem to have a problem at all (like when I did a two-three minute sprint to stop my dog from attacking someone or, believe it or not, playing hardcore badminton). It’s almost like light exercise triggers it, but heavy exercise doesn’t. Jogging vs. running. I’ve also noticed that the time of day sometimes has something to do with it: I’m more likely to have an attack while the sun is up, than at night.
My doctor hasn’t actually said that the belly-in-diaphragm, but when I asked him why, all of the sudden, I was having asthma when I’ve never had an allergy or breathing problem before in my life, he simply pointed at my stomach (I was 235 lbs then; 210 now). It was my inference trying to figure out from that small amount of information why this was happening to me.
Oddly enough, my inital diagnosis put my lung capacity at 60%, barely, but since it’s gotten worse and I was tested again, it’s around 80%
I forget the name of the drug that my doc wants me on (it’s the only med that’s worked for him), but it’s not covered by my insurance and would out me $150 a pop. So, basically, I have to try all the medications that are covered by insurance, have them fail, and then the insurance is supposed to cover this drug. So what I’m supposed to do is take two puffs of albuterol and then fifteen minutes later take two puffs of QVar and a single dose of Serevent (doing this twice a day). I was supposed to have taken 9 doses of prednisone to help “open up the lungs”, but the first dose gave me wild rapid heartbeats, dizziness and actually aggrivated my asthma, so on the advice of the doc-on-call I stopped taking it.
So if what I’m currently on doesn’t work (which by my current feeling it won’t), then I’m to see a lung specialist, who will probably put me on the drug my doc actually wants me on.
Well, asthma is a tricksy thing. But if one is already on Qvar and Serevent and is still having symptoms, I usually think ‘Leukotriene modifiers’. Yup, maybe a nice regular dose of Singulair or Accolate (montelukast and zafirlukast) or the other new one whose name I can’t remember. If that, along with occasional prednisone doesn’t do it, I send my patient (along with his peak flow meter readings, spirometry, and pulmonary function tests) to the allergist. And I’ve gotten good help from a few pulmonologists in the past too, for my asthma patients.
Cats don’t spend time on your kid’s head, do they?
I think Singulair is what my doctor wants to put me on… he gave me a trial dosage and it was in something somewhat egg shapped that you open up in half, pop a pill in, pierce it, and then inhale. So I hope that, assuming all that I’m on fails (as it is so far), maybe that will finally be able to help.
No cats, I’m afraid, although we do have a dog, two birds, and several fish. I’ve never had a problem with them though, so take that as you will.
After writing down everything, I’m wondering that, since light exercise can quickly aggrivate my asthma maybe just carrying my baby around is enough to trigger it? And since I’m the stay-at-home dad I obviously have to do it a lot, and when she was gone, I didn’t carry anything, which allowed me to recover some. Maybe?
I really appreciate all your help, Qadgop Just wanted to lete you know.
Sounds more like pulmocort than singulair. Pulmocort is quite similar to Qvar. I never found it to be particularly superior to Qvar or other inhaled steroids like Flovent.
Ever try the Advair diskus? I’ve found it more helpful for some of my patients that the separate ingredients, Flovent and Servent.
If your asthma truly is exercise induced, you should ask your doc if something like Tilade or Intal is right for you. That’s very helpful in preventing exercise-induced bronchospasm.
Just wanted to lete you know.