This morning I had an asthma attack. Full blown, holy shit I’m gonna die asthma attack. While moderately better I still can’t breathe enough to feel comfortable. It feels like I’m getting half the amount of air in that I should be. The thing is, my doctor won’t give me anything. He says I’m already fully medicated and there’s nothing else he can give me. The only thing is that out of all the medications I’m on only one of them is for asthma and it’s not even working. He thinks this whole thing was caused by a cold(which I’m now over!) and my mom agrees with him. I’m sitting here counting down the minutes till I can use my inhalor again which while it hardly provides relief right now, it provides some and any relief from this is better than where I currently am.
:mad: I hate my asthma.
If your breathing gets any worse again today/tonight, skip the doc and go to the emergency room. If you feel that your breathing is NOT under control, it is not worth the risk of not seeking further treatment. You need to be your own patient advocate, unfortunately, if your mother is unwilling to advocate for you right now. If things don’t improve but you don’t feel the need to get treatment immediately, you should at least seek a second medical opinion as soon as reasonably possible. As an asthma sufferer I firmly believe that you need a doctor who will work with you to make sure you have a management plan that is good for emergencies as well as day to day care.
I agree, if the situation is not under control screw what your doctor says and get yourself to a hospital. There’s no “suck it up” when you can’t breathe properly. It’s dangerous and traumatizing. Sometimes the inhaler doesn’t cut it, when I’ve had it really bad, which was only once fortunately, they gave me an IV drip in the emergency room and some oxygen. That was nice. Just the calming effect of knowing you are in competent care in a medical facility helps tremendously. I’m not saying that’s what you need obviously but I strongly advise you to get a second and third opinion if you don’t feel any improvement. It’s not your doctor whose lungs are shutting down, it’s you.
IANAD and all that.
I’ve convinced my mom so I’m going to see another doctor tomorrow. She thinks I have anxiety which is causing my acid reflux and breathing troubles. Iono, but hopefully the next doctor will just give me something to help because my normal medications aren’t cutting it and it’s damn scary when I can’t breathe well enough to feel comfortable.
What helps me: Cola. No, I’m not joking. The caffeine helps directly, and the carbonation, I feel, helps clear my lugs out.
I hate it when I get a flu bug. I’m over it in a day… but my lungs are shot for weeks. I’ve been there, man. Suckage.
What also helps: Hot, steamy showers, breathing in the hot steam.
I third the vote to find a doctor who will actually work with you to help you manage your asthma. It’s nothing to joke about, and there’s no reason you should be sitting around miserable.
And at any time when you’re having an acute attack and your medication isn’t helping, get thee to the emergency room stat. My doctor told me that any time I was having an attack, even if it wasn’t a truly severe one, the emergency room was the place I should be going, not to his office or any other doctor’s office, because it can turn into an emergency situation very quickly and the ER is equipped to deal with it where the ordinary doctor’s office isn’t. I’ve only had to do it twice, but like Pedro said, it was incredibly calming just knowing where people can do what’s necessary to make sure you really and truly can breathe properly.
hugs I know how you feel…it’s scary when you get an attack like that. I have athsma that’s triggered by allergies. My grandpa used to live in a farmhouse that was over a hundred years old. When he had a stroke 10 years ago, my family had to go take care of the house until my uncle could get up there to stay and look after the livestock. The foundation in this house had a lot of problems with seepage and the whole house smelled like warm mold. One of my worst allergies is to mold. And we had to stay overnight. For a week. I remember trying to sleep on the couch, being in a delirious state between sleep/awake/trying to breathe, holding my inhaler so that if I woke up suffocating I’d have it ready. I didn’t want to complain because my Grandpa was in worse shape than me, so I just endured. It was 5 nights from hell.
You can get face spa kits that are like an oxygen mask type thing with a base that has controls on it. I have one and it’s really good for breathing in steam. Convenient so you don’t have to get a shower or bath going to get lots of steam to breathe.
Caffiene does help, especially hot drinks. Also, playing woodwind instruments can help - the repetitive breath control helps strengthen your lungs. I used to play French Horn and it made a noticeable difference in the severity of my athsma.
Do you have a peak flow meter? If not, get one next time and keep track of your readouts.
Go to the emergency room. There is no such thing as being overmedicated if you cannot breathe. You need medical care.
Go here: http://www.noattacks.org/asthmahotline.html they are very helpful and the American Lung Ass.
And quit fucking around and go to the emergency room. Now. 
I hope you work with a doctor who has you on a proper asthma control plan, with proper rescue medications and appropriate maintenance meds to keep the chronic inflammation in your lungs under control.
Any asthmatic who needs to use a rescue medicine like albuterol more than once a week should probably be on at least one maintenance medication, have a peak flow meter, and a personal asthma control plan tailored to their particular condition.
Any asthmatic who feels they are having significant difficulty breathing despite using their rescue medication appropriately should generally be assessed the same day, and in the Emergency room if necessary.
QtM
treating wheezlers for over two decades.
Bludgeoning my colleagues about the head and neck with paper copies of the “Current Practices” asthma guidelines in an effort to get them to treat asthma appropriately for 8 years.
I have a question about the “only use Albuterol once a week” thing. I am on a maintenance med (Flovent), and I never have attacks; I just get a bit wheezy. (my diagnosis is mild asthma) It generally only happens at night. I take a puff or two of Albuterol before I go to bed at night, prophylactically. Is this wrong? Should I refrain unless I indeed need to be “rescued” and not just because I get a bit wheezy in the night?
I know, you’re not my Dr., I’m not your patient, this isn’t medical advice, and I’m going to ask my actual Dr. this question at my next appt.
We prefer “alternatively respirating.”
Asthma sucks.
I have 2 mildly related personal stories. IANAD nor do I have asthma, so YMMV, FWIW et al…
A friend has had asthma for years and used her puffer regularly (couple times a day at times) and made semi-annual trips to the ER due to bad spells. The last couple of times she went she took the bus which took around a half hour, so I guess she didn’t feel too close to passing out. In the last year she has started an oral medication and has not needed her puffer in months. I don’t know which it is, but it is obviously working for her.
My wifes grandfather had slight breathing problems for years and got winded easily. “I’m puffed…” he would say. He wasn’t given anything by his doctor in England and came to Canada for a visit. During his stay he came down with something that aggravated it and he felt lousy for most of his stay. It was bad enough for us to take him to a doctor here and was prescribed meds including a puffer. It did the world of difference for him. When he got home to see his regular doctor, the doctor thought that the puffer was a good idea and that he should have done that earlier.
Good on ya for getting a second opinion. As QtM points out, not all doctors are up on the latest treatments and you need to find something that works for you rather than finding what works for the doctor.
As a childhood/teenagehood asthmatic, I will totally second the suggestion of CAFFEINE. It helps.
And yeah, get your butt to the ER if you don’t feel any better. They can help you out. Then, ask for a referral to an asthma specialist… hoepfully your mom will understand that a second opinion may well be called for at this point.
In this situation, I’d want to see a patient’s peak flows when they’re feeling fine, and compare them to the peak flows when they’re feeling “wheezy”. Then see the peak flows again about 30 minutes after albuterol use.
If I had that info, and the patient in front of me, I could help decide what treatments would be optimal for the situation.
(Hint: You might want to do this and then contact your doctor with your own peak flow numbers. I am assuming you have a peak flow meter; all asthmatics really should, but anyone with mild persistant asthma or worse should definitely have one.)
Mild intermittent asthma: Symptoms once a week or less, requiring albuterol use.
Mild Persistant Asthma: Symptoms more than once a week, etc.
Moderate asthma: Symptoms daily.
Severe: Symptoms continuously.
I was “mild persistant” for years, and am “mild intermittent” now; I’ve never even heard of such a thing…
I’m not surprised. That’s why I had to bludgeon so many doctors about the head and neck with information about asthma treatment standards.
I recently had to switch from a doctor I’ve had for over ten years, so I’m still getting used to the new guy. He’s actually a great guy and is working on controling my allergies and sinuses. He was just hesitant to give me something like prednisone because of my acid reflux. I can see where he’s coming from but I’d rather have a stomachache and breathe well.
I’m feeling a bit better today, not as bad as I was yesterday. My chest still feels tight and my side has started to hurt, but I can breathe easier than I could before. I’ll continue to use my meds then I’m going to see another doctor later today. I’ve severe asthma all my life so it’s not like this situation is new or anything, but nothing quite this bad has come up in a while. My asthma is normally very controlled. I had a peakflow but my brother messed with it so I’m getting a new one. Hopefully, soon.
While I’m an ex-asthmatic (childhood asthma), is that thing available for public consumption? I’m curious to see what the current school of thought is and compare it to what I had as a kid.
I remember asthma. Nowadays I cough now and then, and that’s about it (oh, admittedly if I go running for 20-30 minutes I get pretty tired and breath hard, but that’s not abnormal if you’re not a runner).
Hot shower/bath is good (with a bad you can lay down, but not as much steam. The extra pressure on your chest with a bath may help compress it back down when you take a breath.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/asthgdln.pdf
Beware: PDF!
A few minor changes have been made since this was issued, but it’s still over 99% spot on.