Concerns about asthma diagnosis.
Posted , 3 users are following.
I have been seeing doctors continuously for the last six months due to a worsening feeling of shortness of breath accompanied by various digestive symptoms, throat clearing, catarrh. The breathing problems started very mild and infrequent at the end of December last year and have progressed to be all day every day and quite a distressing feeling.
A consultant I saw had me do a test into a small, handheld device (I think it was a spirometer) and I was diagnosed with "Probable asthma" , indicating uncertainty for the results, but he did say I definitely had airway obstruction.
As yet, I have not had what I would describe as an attack, where I'm gasping for air, but I have a constant heavy feeling in my chest and it's hard to get a good breath in. The severity of this varies throughout the day and sometimes my breathing is fairly laboured, but it's all day, every day.
I was put on Clenil 250mg (two puffs, twice daily) and given a Ventolin inhaler also. These seem to have made no difference after 2-3 months and in fact it has continued to get worse.
I have obtained a peak flow meter recently and have been testing myself a lot throughout the day the last few days. I am 35 years old and about 177cm tall and my typical readings seem to be around 500, going up to 570 after taking ventolin. This seems to be lower than expected for my age/height.
Are these symptoms really normal for asthma? I thought it was more commonly periodic attacks rather than a constant and persistent feeling of not being able to breathe.
0 likes, 8 replies
pm4281
Posted
Thank you in advance
liz85864 pm4281
Posted
Firstly are you male or female? Need to know re your peak flow readings as they are fairly high.
pm4281 liz85864
Posted
Thanks for your reply. I don't know how I forgot to say, but I'm male so I understand the peak flows should be much higher than for a female.
Checking the standard charts, I'm well below the normals, though I realise nowhere near as low as many people.
The difficulty breathing is all the time though and extremely noticeable and worrying, I just haven't experienced an actual "attack" as most people describe them.
I am aware that stress and worrying about it all probably makes it a lot worse, but the doctor still said that I definitely have some airway obstruciton and the tests indicated asthma.
I'm just confused why I have the feeling of finding it hard to breathe all day every day, rather than periodically or in response to a trigger like most people seem to. I am also confused why the medication has made no difference.
liz85864 pm4281
Posted
Thank you.
I'm wondering if you have a severe form of hay fever. This could explain it.
If I were you I'd insist on being sent to a consultant and getting your bloods done.
Good luck and if you. If you need any more help let me know.
Liz.
pm4281 liz85864
Posted
Thanks for your response.
I do suffer from hayfever, though my symptoms started well before the hayfever season and ironically my normal hayfever symptoms haven't been so bad this year, apart from quite itchy eyes perdiodically. I am aware that allergies can make asthma a lot worse, so it's certainly possible that it's contributing to it even if it is not the course.
One of the doctors I saw put me on some strong anthistamines to try to rule out that sort of thing as a factor and it didn't really seem to make much difference, although I was only one them for a couple of weeks.
The years when I've had bad hayfever, my sinuses have been more affected than they are right now, although I have had a little nasal congestion and an inflamed feeling in my nose on and off since January, it has only been very minor.
I have had all kinds of tests actually including a full blood test for literally every thing and I had allergy tests for other common things like dust mite, dog hair, mould/fungus and they came back negative.
green881 pm4281
Posted
To summarize: You are a 35 year old male and first had pulmonary symptoms 6 months ago.
From what I've read, statistically it is rare for asthma to start when you are older than 20. Adult-onset asthma seems to be medically a bit controversial so you have to expect you will get contradictory information from your health team. Classic symptoms of asthma start with broncospasm (tightening of the chest) followed by wheezing that at first you can hear/feel and eventually others can hear when it gets worse. But there are other symptoms just those are the most common.
It's hard for me to say whether you have asthma or something else with similar symptoms. But one thing that tells me you do have some breathing problem is the fact that your peak flow jumped 70 points after Ventolin. If you check my other posts I'm playing around with almost exactly the same thing now. Try it again when you get a lower score take 2 puffs Ventolin and wait 15 minutes and repeat the peak flow. Make sure you try 3 times at least (before and after Ventolin) and learn how to get a good peak reading with some practice.
I am hesitant to say you may have silent reflux because you have trouble breathing in not out. Caution there are studies apparently that say treating your reflux (silent or not) will not affect your asthma symptoms. I don't know who to believe.
I think you definitely need to see a pulmonologist because you have symptoms and below average peak flows.
pm4281 green881
Posted
Thanks for your reply.
After reading, I felt that my "asthma" symptoms were not really particularly normal for people with the condition and that is partly why I posted here -- in the hope to get some feedback on what people know about asthma can affect different people.
I have a tight feeling chest all day, but yes, my problems are breathing in, not breathing out. Actually, breathing out *feels* normal, although I understand that my peak flow scores show that I do have some problems getting air out of my lungs too. I have no wheezing and I have not had what people would call an asthma "attack", just a constant tightness and it feels difficult to breathe in.
I am trying at the moment to take a lot of peak flow readings at various times of the day and seeing what sort of things if any affect it, but I will definitely try taking ventolin if I get a reading that's quite a bit lower than my current average and record again to see how it helps.
Your comment about silent reflux is actually something I have been reading an awful lot about recently because I have significant digestive issues: a lot of burping, pain just below the breastbone and I do also have a hiatus hernia. My initial symptoms before the breathing started to get particularly bad were primarily relating to my stomach and digestive system. Back in January I had an endoscopy and they found the hiatus hernia and I've been on PPIs to reduce stomach acid since then. The breathing problems just have progressed since then.
I have seen a lot of different doctors who specialise in different fields and I get told different things, so I'm very aware there is a lot of disagreement between symptoms and links between asthma, GERD, LPR, hernias etc. It is all very confusing and worrying because it makes me extremely uncertain of my diagnosis and I worry that it might in fact me something else.
What I am essentially trying to get out of this discussion is to try to find out if there are asthmatics that have a *constant* tight chest (when breathing in), but no wheezing, very little coughing and rarely experience attacks.
green881 pm4281
Posted
Now that you mention a hiatus hernia ... I've seen many posts on that why don't you search for that. It seems to cause some breating problems but I personally don't know anything about it.