Asthma Support Group
Asthma is a disease of the human respiratory system where the airways narrow, often in response to a "trigger" such as exposure to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. This airway narrowing causes symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing, which respond to bronchodilators.
I have been treated for years for Asthma and vocalcord disfunction. Over the last several years it has gotten way out of control. My asthma doctor has run alot of test to see if I have a fungus,infection or alergic to something.They came back all negative.
So my question is why do I cough and always spiting up think plem. Now she says I might have a lung condition besides just Asthma.
she said she might send me to a lung doctor. Does anyone else have this problem?
I don't even have an asthma diagnosis, I'm down as having COPD but I complained to my last doctor about the way I react to dust and apparently dust mites (my wife developed asthma and dust mite and allergy issues years ago) and the doctor said I was already listed as having "COPD/Asthma" but my new doctor can't find anything about asthma in my records and I still haven't had testing that I'm aware of that might sort out the two.
In fact, I don't even know if I'm eligible since the test I read about is supposed to trigger an asthma attack and I still don't have an inhaler I can depend on if I'm having an attack (Albuterol still doesn't seem to be that much help for whatever reason, and sometimes doesn't seem to help at all).
I have yet to have any of them give me an explanation for why COPD would be making my nose run so much and causing other symptoms that might easily pass for sinus infection or sinusitis. Sometimes it's very hard to cough stuff up with stuff from my nose trying to go the opposite direction. I have that go on every morning in spite of being on claritin since early this year.
I tried suggesting to the new doctor that maybe I could have a lung (and sinus) infection, and he refuses to believe it because I wasn't running a fever. No luck so far trying to tell any of them that maybe that isn't the best sign to look for.
I wasn't running a fever when something going around put me in the hospital twice for breathing treatments at the beginning of this year. I asked what the blazes is going around that could do that and they said flu but they already knew it wasn't and skipped the flu swabs for lack of fever.
I tried telling my new doctor that my lung trouble started very suddenly some years ago after being sick for three days with something like a cold or a flu that was going around, but it just bounced right off him for the lack of a fever. I was going on long walks and doing all kinds of stuff right to be healthy, caught some kind of bug, and suddenly I couldn't go on walks anymore.
Nobody's paid much attention to things generally being better this year than the last two, either. I've never heard of COPD getting better like that instead of progressing, but they seem to be clinging to that diagnosis.
I can't use a disc inhaler because it makes things worse, one of the things that makes me continue to wonder about a fungal infection sneaking into the picture after some other infection may have started it. Have a new inhaler to try but trying to put off starting until I get my other meds sorted out so I can try to be more sure of what's doing what.
It's a strange thing but the steroids they gave me at the hospital (prednisone and prednisolone) not only seemed to help my lungs (unlike inhaled steroids), but they seemed to help with all of my complaints. I asked the doctor last visit if he'd put me on a low dose for a short period but he refused and started talking about bone loss and other side effects, whereas I've heard of people being put on oral steroids for stomach problems like mine and other conditions.
Concerning fungal infection, Candida may colonize a lot of people, is a known and accepted allergen according to those who make those decisions, wouldn't have to travel far from the mouth to the lung, and it sounds scary to be colonized an allergen, but my last doctor wanted to get in an argument about all the research into Candida as a pathogen, in places besides the gut or the female genital tract. Somehow they seem to have got the idea you have to have HIV for it to be a worry, and I don't even know where they got that from.
Anyway, best of luck to you, LetsTalk. I hope you'll come back and tell us what you found out.