Asthma with only one symptom.

hi same here i was just told i have asthma by the test . i have no cough no wheezing only thing i feel is shortness of breath.

Yes, I was adult onset asthma (over 30 yo) and it is truly HARD to deal with. The problem is constantly being attacked by allergens or colds that you cannot avoid. Asthma and copd symptoms are often worse in the morning, because you are lying down and mucus just settles in your chest.

If you feel better after using a rescue inhaler, that's a good indication of asthma.

But you probably know there are different degrees of having asthma. Some people have very mild asthma and rarely if ever have serious attacks. They only need to use an albuterol inhaler every once in a while. Some other people have moderate asthma and need daily maintenance steroidal based meds, like Advair, Symbicort or Brio to keep attacks from getting bad. And many asthmatics are moderate to severe sufferers who need inhaled steroids daily, rescue inhalers and regular trips to the ER to stay alive.

I almost always have a bad asthma exacerbation when I catch a cold. This just happened to me last week and ended up in a 3 day admission in the hospital. Sometimes I am able to muddle through the cold without going to the hospital, even though I am wheezing, etc. But after 20 plus years with this, I know my body and when it's truly an emergency requiring mega doses of hospital meds... which always means repeated nebs, intravenous steroids, magnesium injections and just professional oversight.

So I have multiple symptoms, but that doesn't mean you should ignore your one. They DO NOT PLAY at the hospital with asthma. I know it's harder to get the right diagnosis when you don't wheeze... that is definitely what they looking for first. But sometimes your lungs are so constricted that so little air is getting through that wheezing is hard to hear. That's when blood pulse oxygen tests are more important. Anything less than 90 is bad.

Take care of yourself and learn all you can about asthma symptoms and treatments. Go to the ER whenever you are short of breath. Since you respond well to nebulizer treatments, you can probably get better right in the ER without an admission.