Your experiences with asthma

I never had asthma until I was in my 20s.
It was at that point I developed allergies to everything it seemed. I haven’t found anything to really control my allergies, at least over the counter.
Of course, I did smoke off and on which I’m sure didn’t help it, but I’ve been clean for over a year, allergies still getting worse, especially triggered by cigarette smoke ironically. I have a rescue inhaler which I use daily.

That’s pretty much a textbook definition for uncontrolled asthma - the rescue inhaler should be used rarely; if it is needed that frequently there should be some escalation.

Is your doctor aware of how often you’re using the rescue inhaler? Has your doctor suggested a steroid inhaler, or an inhaler with a combination of a steroid and a longer-acting bronchodilator? Two combo inhalers that come to mind are Advair (fluticasone + salmeterol) and Symbicort (budesonide + formoterol). If the doctor is aware, and has NOT made such a suggestion, s/he is not treating your asthma appropriately.

Asthma is considered a disease of inflammation these days, not just bronchoconstriction. Having the inflammatory component adequately controlled makes flareups less likely, as I understand it.

+1.

Call your Dr. Or switch Dr’s if this one thinks that this is an appropriate course of maintenance. Inhalers are not maintenance devices.

Slight correction: rescue inhalers are not maintenance devices - steroid inhalers are!

I have very mild asthma. As long as I take my allergy medicine regularly, it doesn’t flare up. When it does, it’s generally a lot of coughing and my neck/chin itching like mad. If I get sick, however, it always flares up; colds tend to leave me coughing to the point of pain. The last time, I had to go to urgent care. They gave me Prednisone and some steroid nasal thing. That kicked its ass. I also have an albuterol inhaler to use if things get bad, but I basically almost never have to use it.

I refuse to admit that I have it. To me it’s just allergies. I get a little wheezy that night if I’ve been exposed to certain things for a while. I have an inhaler and I’ll use it a few times a year. I don’t need to use it, but it sure helps getting to sleep.

I’m mostly pissed about it since my life insurance is two or three times what it should be because I’ve been diagnosed with asthma, that I don’t have. :stuck_out_tongue: Seriously though, I’m pretty fit. I get a little wheezy if I roll around in hay for an hour, and I’m a huge health risk? Come on.

Thanks all for all your posts. It’s interesting that most of you take allergy medicaton - that’s not something I’ve really come across in British asthmatics.

Anyway, my story: was diagnosed at two. Spent a lot of time in hospital as a kid, the longest stay being three months. What made it worse was living in a ridiculously cold house - no heating (in England), not hot water, huge damp patches on all the walls. Leaving there made my asthma better even though I was literally living on the streets!

It then got better throughout my twenties and early thirties. I reduced my medication as much as I could but could never completely stop taking it, serevent (the rescue inhaler) and seretide (the maintenance inhaler, combination type; the drugs have completely different names in the US and UK.

Right now I’m using my rescue inhaler multiple times daily. I have some prednisilone that my doctor prescribed for me to take for a week or two when I felt I needed it, just to let him know. It’s pretty good of him to do that, really, but I’ve had asthma for 37 years and I loathe taking prednisilone, so he can trust me. When I start it I’ll be on four different kinds of steroids at once!

I’ve just ordered an oxygen meter to start trying to help me take control of this.

I do have a cat, but animals have always been much worse for me in terms of hives than breathing problems. He does give me hives if he touches my face, but otherwise not. Dogs now give me ridiculously awful hives the second I touch them. :frowning: (I love dogs). The cat gives me so much comfort alone at home all day that there’s no way I’m getting rid of him.

Had my first major attack since I was age 5, which puts it close to 50 years ago. I had some moderate attacks before adulthood and a few years ago, I noticed that I was back to wheezing occasionally. But this September saw me start a project in an underground building. By October, I had pneumonia, which we resolved just in time for me to get a cold. The cold turned into bronchitis which left me with a cough that hurt my whole being.

One day, I couldn’t get air and the feeling that I had forgotten returned (Hey, I remember this! It’s asthma!). The next day, I coughed so hard I blacked out at work. That was a first.

I already had my first inhaler ever due to the pneumonia but my doc upgraded me from albuterol to something steroidal. I hate steroids, but the relief it gave me was amazing. I have moved myself to a better building and announced the move as a done deal. The cough is gone but so are the steroids. Hoping like mad I don’t get sick again before the end of winter. Then, I need to start tackling this by building up my lungs again with aerobic activity.

Moderate to severe asthma since about the age of 13, induced primarily by animal dander, dust and particles (I’ve had some nasty outbreaks from painting), cold weather and exercise. Frequently needed my rescue inhaler (mult times daily) Advair and Singulair helped but never really made a big difference. I got put on Symbicort this past summer and it was life changing - I was finally able to run more than a few hundred meters without falling into a mucousy, wheezing pile. If I’m consistent about a twice daily regimen, I can go weeks without touching my rescue.

Do you have a mold allergy? England can be wicked damp. Have you ever had a complete round of allergy testing? And the allergies, along with your other sensitivities, are cumulative - one thing on its own might not give you an asthma attack, but add them all up, and bingo! At least that’s how my doctor explained it to me, and in my case he turned out to be right.

The lung doctor says I have allergic asthma; the allergologist says I may have “a bit of rhinitis” and that since I don’t get hives I’m not allergic to anything. I’m reasonably sure that my nose doesn’t get all the way down to my diaphragm, but calling Interflora and asking for a dozen pollen-bearing lilies to be delivered at the allergologist’s didn’t seem like a good idea. Since I had the testing done, there has been a trend to refer to people in my situation as having “sensitivities”; the more specialized allergy medications don’t do anything for us, it’s got to be generic antihistamines instead.

I get clogged up from some scents, some kinds of pollen (including lilies and retama), and some foods. Mustard, curry (I think it’s got to be a specific spice, but I’m not going to try and test which one), mussels, cod are the most common ones. I’m also a great detector for dirty HVAC filters and try to choose hotels without car… car… caaaaarCHOO excuse me carpeting sniffle (for some reason the HVACs and carpet trigger sneezes and sniffles, which other things don’t).

All this developed around age 40.

I usually carry antihistamines and have been known to take one “preventively” when all the food available involved one or another trigger, but normally I won’t take one unless I’m having an attack.

History of food issues in my family include unusual reactions (Dad, 2.Bro), hives from any capsaicin (1.Bro), and asthma with hives from a popular flat fish (Niece - we’re avoiding all flat fishes, just in case and we don’t care what the test said).

I’ve only had it as an adult, and it’s only triggered by allergies or very rarely by hard breathing in very cold air. For quite a while I only had attacks about once a year, but now I haven’t had one in about 6 years. I try to keep a rescue inhaler around, but the last few have gotten old without ever being used. It’s pretty irritating that they discontinued the primatine mist since it was so simple and easy to find. I have one of those nebulizer type things in the cabinet but who knows if that crap will work if I ever need it.

Yes to the mould allergy. I had full allergy testing a few times as a child, at hospital, the pinprick on the arms type - only peanuts didn’t cause a reaction (they still don’t). I’m also intolerant to milk (which is quite common in asthmatics; I actually took part in a medical experiment on this when I was about 11, presumably one that was specifically aimed at children), wheat and onions. But the result with those is diarrhoea, flatulence and stomach pains rather than asthma and it’s not unbearable except that the farting can be rather antisocial. :smiley:

My flat isn’t mouldy except for one spot in the bathroom that I regularly treat with mould spray. I’ve also got rid of most of the carpets, have anti-allergy bedding and my home is always very clean, pretty much dust-free; some cleaning products bring on quite a strong reaction, but I have to clean.

I think maybe I’ll get some over-the-counter antihistamines and add them in to my regime. I usually only take them when going somewhere new, or visiting someone who has pets, but it’s worth at least trying them more regularly.

The countryside, no, because I can’t drive, but we are trying to move to somewhere less built up but with public transport, jobs, etc. Not sure if it will ever actually happen. My asthma is significantly better outside London, it’s true.

The countryside does have its own problems with allergens for most people though - all that pollen (rapeseed is known to be very bad for asthma), all those animals, just when driving along the road.

Mine is both, and I think that’s the case for a lot of people. At school I actually quite liked sport and competed in sprinting for my secondary school, with very good times, but anything longer than 100m knocked me out (well, made me fall over wheezing) before I finished the race. However, when my asthma was pretty good, in my mid-twenties, I joined a football team and although I did have to take my inhaler sometimes while playing I never had a full-blown attack. At that point I thought that I’d “grown out of” my asthma as some people said might happen.

BTW, check with your doctor, but you might need to get a new inhaler. The inhalant does leak out over time so yours might not be effective when and if you need it again. It’s probably worth making sure.

How about a coastal town? Can you cycle? If so, how about somewhere flat like Cambridge or Norfolk?

Do you know what exactly is triggering your asthma? You mentioned during your childhood days your home was damp. Did it have mold ? I’ve heard mold spores can trigger asthma and now you have pets and I’m afraid the pet dander might be the trigger this time round.

It’s good you have an oxygen meter but first you’ll have to get rid of the allergens which are triggering your asthma attack. Maybe investing in a good room air purifier could help alleviate your asthmatic condition. My sister uses this portable room air purifier http://www.go-clair.com which was recommended by her GP after my nephew started having wheezing and breathing trouble in the night. Apparently it has a new e2f filter technology which is very effective . She told me it has helped him with the symptoms to a great extent. I think for allergy sufferers preventive measures like this will have long term health benefits .

Had asthma all my life. Was a child before puffers were around and then used a variety when they became available.

Moved to West Australia about ten years ago where the climate is hot, dry and very little humidity compared to Queensland. Found that I no longer needed any inhalers and went off medication virtually totally. I had a ventolin puffer but they were normally a few years past the use by date.

A year ago I moved back to Qld and still have had no asthma problems. It worked out very well, although totally by accident.

Diagnosed at age 5, over my childhood I had the full allergy test which was inconclusive(the hundreds of tiny needles on your back one).

Went through all the prevention meds to nebulizer to oral and then injected prednisone, all this time I had infrequent but severe attacks and the best med the whole time was Primatene Mist(epinephrine inhaler).

No prevention med ever worked, said BEEP it and stopped them on my own volition and just used the PM for attacks when they came.

Long story including a ER visit where I was blue eventually lead me to try loratadine on my own.

WOW, now it is like I don’t have asthma. Still keep some PM inhalers around for emergency but wow loratadine.

Early thirtys, been on inhalers my entire life. As long as I have my daily dulera and an albuterol half the time for exercise I’m fine (cold air really kills my lungs).

Had a spat a few years ago where a doc thought it would be fun to reduce my dosage. That was a wasted and uncomfortable month of my life. Had to explain to him I’d rather be a little overdosed than underdoesed as the quality of life difference between the two is extreme and I didn’t like being pushed into the minimum bareable quality of life just to make him happy.

Other than that, it’s been ok, not a huge factor in my adult life. Now… if we could just fix US drug pricing a bit.

I’ve had it since I was 5. It was pretty bad throughout my childhood, all the way to college, because my pediatrician never prescribed me anything that worked (meanwhile one of my best friends in grade school at the time had a rescue inhaler at least). I never took P.E. and had to sit out every other run at marching band practice in high school. I used Primatene Mist which was available over the counter at the time (it’s bad for you long term). It took a trip to the hospital to get an actual lung doctor to prescribe the right medicines. I had gotten to the point where I was taking the Primatene every 30 minutes, every day.

The turnaround was amazing. Today I take Advair as a preventative, and Albuterol as a rescue, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I used the rescue inhaler. It’s really going to suck when I run out of my supply of Advair - I got some inhalers from my aunt who refused to use them - because insurance doesn’t cover it and they cost about $50 each.