h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I only ask because the doc says I have asthma but as no tests were carried out I'm not convinced.
I've had a look on various sites and read about the symptoms but mine seem a bit wimpish to be called asthma.
All I've got is occasional tightness in my chest and occasionaly find it difficult to catch my breath whilst laying down (sometimes get palpitations with the later) no wheezing, no cough, although the initial visit to the doc was because of a cough.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? or have I just got galloping woodworm

Asthma is a common term the quacks bandy around for anyone with occaisonal shortness of breath these days. In the late 70's when I was diagnosed and had to take an inhaler at school, the school nurse hadn't seen anything like it. These days there's a cupboard specially for the ubiquitous blue puffers.

Attacks can take many forms. For me, I characterise an asthma attack as an inability to exhale fast enough - your reflex breathes in to get more air in but can't, so tries to breathe in even faster - it's a vicious circle leading to a totally tense body and inability to speak or breathe, which is where the real danger starts. Lying down definately makes matters worse, and the best thing you can do is try and relax to break the cycle and slow your breathing. Attacks also often have some form of trigger, such as allergies or physical exertion. Asthmatics ususally have loads of fun with colds and hayfever too. You may well have the condition in a very mild form.

Asthma is a very serious condition which still to this day kills. Fortunately though in the vast majority of cases it's nowhere near that severe and totally treatable and manageable. Most manage with a 'blue' inhaler, just used when required. If you are using that a lot, you may be prescribed a 'brown' steriodal inhaler, which actually prevents attacks.

If I can give you any advice as someone who has suffered with it at varying degrees for 25 years, let me know....

I use the famous blue puffer too, i am being given grief from doc 'cos i am on beta blockers for palpitations (anxiety related, no actual heart probs); the two drugs do not interact.

Certainly the lying down triggers it off, plus i find when i wake up it all starts again, so i end up "puffing" before going to sleep and "puffing" again first thing when i wake up, basically if the lungs relax or have to get going, they start sulking and complaining!

Do you smoke? Obviously this isn't going to help; but this is me saying "Do as i say, not as i do" because i do smoke. But smokers usually end up with chronic bronchitis, which is often difficult to differentiate from asthma, the blue puffer brings instant relief in both conditions 'cos it opens up the bronchial tubes.

Evil horrid people like me use the puffer, have a good cough and once feeling less at the edge of death, follow it up with a cigarette, utterly, totally the wrong thing to do; having opened up your lungs a bit, you then proceed to fill them full of poisonous smoke and naturally (if they haven't totally given up) they close up in self defence.



zdt

My daughter, who is 10, is diagnosed as having asthma. Her main symptoms are that she is clearing her throat all the time. She doesn't cough or gasp. She just feels like she needs to.

Tests done on her blowing into a tubey thing showed that she doesn't have the exhaling abilities of a normal girl of her age, and that her ability to exhale improves dramatically if she uses an inhaler. She now takes an inhaler twice a day.

Now, as an asthmatic who spent three weeks in an oxygen tent at the age of 2 and nearly died, that doesn't sound like asthma.

As I understand it, and I do credit myself with a high understanding of this particular subject, asthma is a clearly delineated condition - the inflammation of the bronchioles; that is, the sub-bronchial tubes. This manifests as the chest tightness and difficulty breathing. There are obviously various degrees of severity - madbeachcomber has a mild form; when I suffer a severe attack, I can't even stand up without gasping for breath. It sounds to me like Gnomon's daughter has something completely different and maybe he should try for a second diagnosis. The Peak Flow meter isn't totally reliable - I have an unusually high lung capacity which distorted all my exhalation readings through my teenage years. It even could be purely psychological (was it The Goonies where the kid who spent the whole film puffing on his inhaler found at the end that it was just a placebo?).

B

I'm happy with the diagnosis, B. The doctor reckoned it was asthma, and the Asthma Nurse, who spends her life treating children with asthma, said that these were the classic symptoms in the majority of cases. Only a few people have the more extreme symptoms that no doubt you have exhibited on occasions.

It's just that the throat-clearing strikes me as either a nervous reaction or due to unshiftable phlegm - neither of which are exactly typical of asthma. But I'm happy to conced to the trained professionals.

B

I'm in the wheezers and coughers club too - but am well controlled most of the time thanks to my steroid inhaler; I rarely use the blue one apart from a couple of puffs before I get on the treadmill.

I wasn't diagnosed until my late twenties and it took a lot of research and a change of GP to get my condition properly under control. I ended up in 'status asthmaticus' twice - which was not a lot of fun.
I blame smoking 30-a-day for damaging my lungs - even now that I haven't smoked for a long time, pubs and smoky atmospheres can make blue inhaler use necessary.

Try this link for more info http://www.asthma.org.uk/

Asthma: The Facts by Donald Lane, Oxford Univ Press - is an excellent book.

Thanks all.
After reading your replies my symptoms do still seem wimpy.
The symptoms I have now have come on since the doc saw me, I was prescribed a blue and brown inhalor just because I had a cough, which is quite scary. I dont smoke, but I dont also do much physical exersise which would make me out of breath so the old lungs are a bit lazy.
I'm glad the laying down shortness of breath thing is familiar to some of you, I havent read that on the asthma sites I've visited. I get a strong need to inhale again before I've finished exhaleing, quite a suffocating feeling.
Are palpitations part of it too and is tiredness a symptom of asthma? Thats something else I'm having a hard time with, in fact I'm of for another blood test in 20 minutes

I would guess that the palpitations are a combination of stress, lack of air and (here's the kicker) the blue inhaler. Take too much of that salbutamol (also known as Ventolin) and you'll get heart palpitations and chronic shakes. It also makes you feel utterly drained and washed out - a bit like a hangover - when you're really hitting it hard.

When I was a kid the doc used to tell me to count my breaths as a relaxation technique as often I was so breathless I couldn't inhale the medication. That might help with the palpitations too.

Do you have a trigger for your asthma? If you do, I doubt your symptoms will seem wimpy for long. My trigger is animal hair, and intermittent contact with the same trigger (same animal, in my case) aggravates the symptoms more and more each time - allergy aggravation syndrome, I believe it's called. I'm guessing from the time of year, that your trigger might be pollen: if so, the symptoms will be worse next year.

The need to inhale again quickly is very familiar to me - the palpitations less so, but we're all different.

The tiredness will be due to the fact that your tissues are receiving less oxygen than they are used to.

B

Sorry if I'm being cynical, but I reckon it's a little like this :

Patient : Doctor, I appear to have a vague problem with breathing.
Doctor : Ah, you have asthma, here, have a salbutamol inhaler - it's cheap, solves the problem, and gets you out of my consulting room fast.

Salbutamol no longer works on me. I think my bronchial tract has built up a resistance over the years.

B

Yeah. I find I'm lucky to get an hour's relief from 200mg these days.

My daughter wasn't given salbutamol. She's on something called "symbicort" which contains budesonide and formoterol.

I had mild asthma as a child, apparently caused by dust mites. Note the past tense. I no longer suffer. I have been cured, and I believe it was the inhalers.

"Most manage with a 'blue' inhaler, just used when required"

I despise these things, and I feel they should be banned. I was given both a blue (ventolin) and a brown (becotide (?)) inhaler, each of which delivered a fixed dose. I took a puff of each at a regular time twice per day, and the result is that I have not had an attack in eight years despite never getting rid of those pesky mites.

As it happens, I also suffer from hayfever. The inhalers do seem to have helped there - I still get the occasional attack, but it is pretty mild. When I was a kid, a hayfever attack pretty much incapacitated me and I couldn't go out during summer at all. To this day I still have a deep mistrust of flowers.

The vast majority of people who have asthma as a child grow out of the condition. I did, only to have it return when I was about 18.

The inhalers do not cure asthma - the becotide is a preventitive steroid, which used correctly along with basically being careful (especially if you have a specific trigger) should keep you pretty well attack free.

I too took the blue inhaler regularly all through childhood, although this is generally now not regarded as a good thing - it doesn't do anything if you're not having an attack, and I believe that I at one time became so dependent on it that I would have psychosematic symptoms when going to bed to make me take it.

Asthma is different for everyone. I agree with Master B about the peak flow meter though. For exhalation mine is always very high unless I'm in the middle of an attack, but when they measure for volume then I get a very bad score and normally told off by the because he's sure I've got more breath to breathe out.

I haven't had a bad attack for about 15 years, when they were bad enough to put me into hospital, but I still have to avoid certain things - normally hot tube trains and swimming pools these days.

Anyone who's got asthma, don't take aspirin.

I forgot to say that I've had (diagnosed?) asthma since I was about 18. So I'e nearly had it for longer than I didn't have it.

Anti-inflamitories (eg. Ibuprofen) are generally a bit iffy for asthmatics too. I have taken them when needed (nothing else touches toothache!) but have to be extra careful on the wheezy front.