Thanks QtM! I’m mild intermittent that becomes more persistent if I get a cold or it’s allergy season (right now, leaf mold is kind of kicking it up a notch, I believe).
See, I find lying down actually makes my lungs work harder, so I prefer steamy showers to hot baths. Plus, my face is nearer the hotter air.
Does anyone else find the carbonation helps in addition to caffeine? Not so much on the asthma itself, but it clears the, ah, phleghm that tends to show up in the throat.
(Do not take medical advice from friendly, well meaning people. I am only living with asthma, not a doctor)
Interestingly, my asthma is as much temperature related as effort-related. I can perform for much longer in summer, while even going outside for more than brief periods in winter risks attacks.
Ta much! clicky
…
153 pages worth? No wonder you use it as a bludgeon. 
To **flamingbananas ** – good luck with the doctor! Breathing is nothing to be screwing around with.
Call 911. Paramedics carry several medications that can treat asthma. Your treatment can start as soon as the ambulance is on scene, rather than after you get triaged at the ER.
St. Urho
Paramedic
Athsma killed the 20 year old husband of my friend’s sister. When I told my mother, she said, “People don’t die of Asthma, lee.” Which explains why she never took my asthma seriously. When I visited her a few years after moving out, I warned her that I needed to keep away from the cats and she pretended that she would respect that. Yet she let one in my room when I slept. I had the worst astma attack of my life that night and my husband had to threaten to steal her car (we had none ourselves) in order to get her to take me to the ER. To this day she seems to think that asthma will go away if you ignore it. I am very lucky to have survived under her parenting. I’m glad you convinced your mom to get you to a new doctor.
BTW Acid reflux can cause breathing troubles independantly from asthma. My husband was breathing in acid from his acid reflux and did have lung damage from it and that took quite a while to heal once treatment started. The doctor treated his acid reflux and gave him some of the same medications that my doctor gives me if I get bronchitis, to open his airways and make breathing easier while his lungs healed. He doesn’t have astma, but there is no reason such a thing could not happen to someone with asthma.
lee, Asthma kills about 5000 people in the US every year.
Not that your mom will listen to me, I’m sure.
Advair is your friend flamingbananas, I was a bag pipe until I found it.
I also have a Nebulizer incase of serious attack as well.
She is probably convinced that if people, especially doctors, had not filled their head with silly notions, then they would be alive today. I have my rescue inhaler, but I am lucky that I can usually manage just to avoid the triggers. The bane of my existance is heavily perfumed train passengers and those nasty aerosols air fresheners that automatically fire every so often in many public restrooms.
If you guys are going to be all “constructive” and “helpful”, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We can’t have that sort of thing around here.
Moving thread from the Pit to MPSIMS.
FlamingBananas, glad you can breathe easier today. I hope the new doc gets a better feel for what you need to have done when you have a flareup. I’d personally rather deal with aggravated reflux than with struggling to breathe - I have both reflux and asthma myself. Reflux can be helped with antacids and the acid-blockers, and generally won’t kill you in the short-term. Asthma however, can.
Thanks QtM for clarifying the peak flow comparisons when well vs. when sick. As an illustrative anecdote: I tend to blow very high numbers on a peak flow meter. When I get down to “normal” for my height/age/gender, I’m having trouble. My doc once saw me during a fairly major (for me) flareup and said “If I didn’t have your file with historical readings, I’d think you were perfectly healthy”; my readings showed a 25% or so drop from normal-for-me.
I’ll vent a little (not at you, but at some docs, parents of asthmatics, and the asthmatics themselves): I run into so many people who are not educated, including docs, and don’t have the common sense to recognize the beginnings of a flareup and take appropriate action (e.g. starting inhaled steroids) immediately - resulting in a Very Sick Person unnecessarily. And one particularly shocking anecdote (true story): We brought my son’s friend along with us when we went on vacation. He used nebulized Pulmicort (steroid) daily and had excellent control. His mother didn’t want us to be bothered with a neb on the trip (even though we own one, and could have brought it) so she asked the doc what to do.
Instead of saying “Here, use this steroid inhaler”, he said “Oh, just stop the pulmicort, and use albuterol as needed”. :smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:
Within 24 hours, this kid was coughing. Within 48, he was coughing a lot. Within 72, I had (with his parents’ permission) started him on our steroid inhaler and was calling around to find an ER. He wound up on steroid syrup and antibiotics. Had we been less aware of asthma flareups, and had we not had local friends to call to find out where to be seen, this kid could have gone untreated long enough to wind up in the hospital. All because of a STUPID-ASS doctor who lacked even rudimentary knowledge of how to treat asthma on an ongoing basis. (and yes, the mom ripped that doc a new one…)
Alas, I can’t take Advair because of my migraine medication. 
I was going to go on it but they found out the drugs interact, so I’m on Pulmicort.
I’ve had a nebulizer for ages, it’s what I used when I couldn’t breathe.
The new doctor said I sounded fine so I didn’t get anything either. It’s not getting worse, but it’s still not a ton better, so I’ll just keep on using my nebulizer.