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.
Do you ever feel like you have an elephant sitting on your chest when you have an attack? This is the first thing I notice. Is this anxiety or an actual attack? I have it when I'm just laying in bed unwinding for the night. I seem to have more problems breathing laying down than when I'm upright. Is this normal???
When I had my reaction to an antibiotic, I felt like my chest was being pushed down; not a crushing pain like a heart attack, just like someone was sitting on it and wouldn't get up. And also, after my D&C, I had to go back to the ER because I felt the same way. I actually cried because every time I laid down I couldn't breath. They thought it was a pulmonary embolism, and it wasn't, but they told me that I was passing air fine when I went in there. I had my neb treatment, coughed a bunch of ick up, and was able to breath again.
I guess I'm just really confused as to what the symptoms of a "real" asthma attack are!! Again, my pulse ox is always fine, they say I'm passing air freely, BUT respiratory comes and says I sound tight, and I always feel like I have that person sitting on my chest. Please help! Really getting confused as to when I need to worry. I have my peak flow. It was about 250 the day I had a reaction to the antibiotic. I already knew that was an attack.
When I had my reaction to an antibiotic, I felt like my chest was being pushed down; not a crushing pain like a heart attack, just like someone was sitting on it and wouldn't get up. And also, after my D&C, I had to go back to the ER because I felt the same way. I actually cried because every time I laid down I couldn't breath. They thought it was a pulmonary embolism, and it wasn't, but they told me that I was passing air fine when I went in there. I had my neb treatment, coughed a bunch of ick up, and was able to breath again.
I guess I'm just really confused as to what the symptoms of a "real" asthma attack are!! Again, my pulse ox is always fine, they say I'm passing air freely, BUT respiratory comes and says I sound tight, and I always feel like I have that person sitting on my chest. Please help! Really getting confused as to when I need to worry. I have my peak flow. It was about 250 the day I had a reaction to the antibiotic. I already knew that was an attack.
you are not alone int he feeling off having an elephant sitting on your chest. I often liken it to a sumo wrestler siting on my chest. I am not sure what causes it i will ask drs when they come round and let you know.
It is also common for athmatics to ahve trouble breathign when lying down. i cant lie down at all i sleep at 90 degrees becasue my lungs wont tolerate any flatter. it may be worth proping your self up. also some people find it easier to lie on their sife than flat as this moves all the other parts of the body like he stomach etc out of the way and allow the lungs more room to move freely and also takes the pressure of the diaphragm and helps breathing.
It can occur in both asthma attacks and panic attakcs the heavy feeling of the chest. will find otu more
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At least I'm starting to get more aquanted with the asthma attack symptoms. The repiratory tech in the ER told me that becuase we live with asthma and the symptoms, a lot of the times we come in and it's a bad situation because we didn't know how hard is actually was for us to breath until we get there and get treatment! If I don't have a clue what the symptoms are, I'm relying on my peak flow too much.
yes this is one fo the problems living with a chronic disease. you become a customed to feeling unwell and that starts to feel normal after a while. so finding it harder to breathe becomes a normally feeling and when we get bad we become very severe as our breathing is already compromised as it is. It is a very fine line we live our lives on between managable and very acute. It is just knowing when to recognise that we are going even more downhill before we actually go down hill.
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