A little over a week ago I caught something really nasty from my dad, who had bronchitis, who caught it from my sister. After a while of feeling crummy and realizing it wasn’t going to go away on it’s own, I went to the clinic and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. Got put on a z-pack and that was about it. The sickness subsided in that there was no more infected looking phlegm and my voice came back, but I couldn’t shake a cough that was keeping me up all night. It was worse when I laid down and just felt like I HAD to cough something up but no matter how hard I tried, nothing came up. It just felt like something was there.
I returned to the clinic a second time to explain my predicament and they started to assume it was asthma. This was a little surprise because it definitely was not what I was expecting to hear; just thought I’d be given some more random medication and I would be okay in a couple of days. At the same time, I’m not too surprised. I’ve always suspected I had exercise-induced asthma growing up but it never worried me too much to go get it checked out. Both my parents smoked a lot when I was growing up and the house was really nasty and dirty…I guess I was hoping I’d come out with some type of superhuman immune system, and not this.
The doctor thinks that (hopefully) it’s only sickness-induced. She hypothesized that the infection I had may have brought out the asthma.
I’m 26. I really don’t know anything about asthma at all. They did a breathing treatment on me, gave me an inhaler and some steroid pills and sent me on my way. I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m taking the pills on time, using the inhaler whenever I can, but is it normal to still feel like my chest is tight and to cough all the time? (I was at the clinic on Thursday, it’s Sunday now.) I don’t feel any different when I use the inhaler. I take cough-suppressant medicine to fall asleep. Right now it just feels like I have a scarf wrapped around my neck too tightly, especially around my adam’s apple.
I’m just tired of being sick, and people giving me the death glare when I cough up a crazy storm. It’s embarrassing and I still feel like shit and I have no clue what should be normal at this point and I just want to cry a lot and be a big baby because I have never experienced this before. I’m glad I can sleep now, but I still feel uncomfortable.
I guess, any tips on how to cope or when to become (more worried) or experiences from asthmatic dopers would be greatly appreciated.
Go see a pulmonologist. You’re clearly not in a stable situation. Maybe you’re on the mend and you haven’t noticed yet because you’re still somewhat sick. Or maybe you need a different treatment protocol. Either way, your best bet is a specialist. Primaries (in the opinion of my pulmonologist) tend to undertreat asthma when it’s not life threatening.
This might be asthma, and it might be the after-effects of pneumonia (which take a long time to go away, even once the infection is beaten back. My daughter’s going through this right now). Or it might be both!
When mine is really bad, it does take a couple days to get myself all the way back to normal, even with the prednisone and the rescue inhaler. Also, I frequently have the experience of feeling there’s something in my throat I can/need to clear, but it’s actually an illusion brought on by irritation of the throat due to all the coughing I’ve already done. But in my experience, even when my inhaler doesn’t get me al the way back, I almost always see an immediate improvement when I take a puff.
Finally, in the meantime, sleep with a couple pillows so you’re half sitting up. (Or more if you need it.) Respiratory complaints of every description intensify when you’re prone. But get yourself to a pulmonologist. Whether she changes your protocol or not, she’ll be able to give you a better understanding of what to expect than the clinic doctors have given you.
One other thing – make sure the cough suppressant you’re taking doesn’t have any sedative effects. Better to wake up because you can’t breathe than not wake up when you need to.
When I’ve had an upper respiratory infection I often end up with “reactive airway”, which was once incorrectly diagnosed as asthma. I have awful problems coughing when I lie down, and it can go on for weeks. My chest feels heavy. It’s a feedback loop, and the inhaler will eventually stop it. Keep using the inhaler as prescribed and see where you are in a week.
One more thing… do you have any reason to suspect you might have an underactive thyroid? When the thyroid swells it can create a sensation of not being able to get a deep breath. If the doctor palpated the front of your throat, this is what s/he was looking for.
Sattua, I hope I don’t have hypothyroidism. I had the lump in my throat and it feels better/smaller today but I wonder if it was just from all the coughing. I’m keeping an eye on it now to see if it gets any worse today. My glands on the side of my throat feel swollen so I worry that the infection still isn’t gone yet…I am going to go to the clinic tomorrow and see if I can get another round of antibiotics. I am still coughing up some yellow gunk in the morning.
Cliffy, I had been using cough suppressant with sedative effects to fall asleep, otherwise I’ll be hacking all night. I’m a light sleeper as it is (and I only sleep on my stomach, usually breathing through my mouth so this illness has not been comfy at all) and it helped but I guess I could try one night to see if I can fall asleep without it.
I’d love to see a specialist but I don’t know if I have the money and what my insurance will cover. I guess I need to find out. I make very little since I’m full time grad school. I’m just tired of being sick, I was looking forward to my very rare break from school and to working out and getting fit and then this kinda threw a wrench into my plans.
It sounds like you may have mild asthma that’s brought on by respiratory infections. Definitely see an asthma specialist to be sure. Twice over the last decade I got what the ER said was pneumonia and treated me with antibiotics. I had a really, really bad cough. The 3rd time, about 2 years ago, I went to a regular doctor and he suggested I had asthma and treated me with antibiotics for 5 days. I then went to an asthma doctor and he confirmed the diagnosis. It’s hard to say with certainty if I had been misdiagnosed those first 2 times, but it seems likely. I now use a daily inhaler which the doctor believes will reduce the likelihood of severe coughing issues when I do get a respiratory infection. Since I currently am dealing with a crappy cold, we’ll see if that really works.
As for how long it takes to recover, I was and am in my 40s when the episodes happened and it took a couple of weeks before I was really feeling better. We’ll see how things go with this latest episode since I’m better prepared for it. Things might go better since you are younger, but you need to see a specialist. If it is asthma, the antibiotics would probably be the same as if it were pneumonia, but he might add inhalation therapy to help.
Hi welcome to my world.
When I get a cold if it settles into my chest I can expect 6 weeks or so of wanting to cough a lung up with every single breath. I have to concentrate that I will not cough with each breath.
I have been diagnosed as having sub acute asthma or very sensitive lungs ( can’t recall exactly what the doc said)
Anyway what has worked for me is the following:
Salt water nasal rinse (neti pot)
Asthma inhaler.
OTC phlegm busting drugs.
If I start all of the above as soon as I start to feel sick it never settles into my lungs.
Is your inhaler albuterol (like Xopenex or Ventolin) or steroid (such as Qvar or Symbicort)? The former should give relief within a minute or two. If it doesn’t, that could be very bad and you should go to the clinic ASAP. With the latter, you should go back to the clinic anyway at your earliest convenience just because it seems to be ineffective.
I don’t remember anything involving my neck strictly due to my asthma. But I haven’t had a severe attack for decades because it’s under excellent control with Qvar and an occasional puff of albuterol.
Your insurance probably will cover a pulmonologist visit, although you might need to get a referral from your primary first. But you need to see one. Obviously, make sure of your coverage before you go (most plans, it’s a five minute phone call to the number on the back of your insurance card).
Around Monday I slept 14 hours, woke up feeling noticibly better. I don’t cough as much and I’m not as wheezy. However, I still cough up some yellow phlegm every morning and still have an uncomfortable cough. I returned to the clinic where they are going to have me try one more round of antibiotics. We hope that it’s just a stubborn infection and that this last round will squash it for good. If not…Well, I have a referral to go get a chest x-ray in case it’s pneumonia. I really hope it isn’t but at least I know what to do next if this new antibiotic doesn’t clear it up.
Cliffy, I think that if it does not improve after this round, I’m going to take your advice and go to a pulmonologist after getting a chest x-ray. Same with you, computergeek…gonna have to look around here for specialists and whatnot as opposed to the ol’ school clinic.
Rowr, I was given a steroid pill and an albuterol inhaler (ventolin.) I’ve never had asthma before and I rarely ever get sick so the problem is that it’s really hard for me to gauge if it’s working or not. There’s no “Ah, I can breathe everything! Relief!” feeling but I never knew what level of relief an inhaler should give a person. It’s more like “Well, not dead yet, that’s good.” kind of thing but I can’t tell if there is any difference with or without an inhaler.
And thanks for the link, wind.
I’m trying to be optimistic. It’d be great if all I needed was more rest and these new antibiotics to get back to normal. I’ll keep everyone updated and again, thanks for all the help.
Thanks for the advice and support. I returned to the clinic one more time as I mentioned and they prescribed doxycycline hyclate as my second round antibiotic which I have a few days left with. I think they would have liked to do bactrim or amoxicillin but unfortunately I have bad reactions to both. The only reaction I had to the doxy was nausea when I didn’t take it with a meal and man, they weren’t joking about it!
I’m almost back to normal. Just a teeny cough now nothing major. It’s crazy to think that I had been sick for over three weeks and at one point was wondering if I’d ever breathe normally again! Definitely not taking it for granted and I’m going to try my best to avoid catching anything else this season.
