Sorry, the tally should read:
1.PCP: Asthma
2.Pulmonologist: Asthma
3.ER : RADS
4.ent: RADS
5.Allergist: MEDS

First, let's clear up some needless semantic confusion brought to you courtesy of the AMA and other such groups and coming to soon to a drug commerical ad on the latest palm device.

The umbrella diagnosis is: COPD. Good ole' undifferentiated, undefined chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Period.

Next. The sub-type of this (depending on who is in charge of the kitchen that night) might be labeled as: asthma (another grossly nebulous conception), and/or RADS- reactive airway disease.

Again, and I can't stress this enough, it makes absolutely no difference whether you call this "asthma" or "reactive airway disease." In this case, as the Bard would appropriately enough say, a rose is indeed a rose.

The pathology is exactly the same: airway constriction and inflammation due to a trigger- laughing, exercising, stress, chemical exposure, temperature change, medications, and, yes, good ole' acid reflux disease which also causes the lungs to constrict and inflame, etc. The treatment is also exactly the same: bronchodialtors and anti-inflammtories of various types and generations mixed in combination.

Blood pressure medications can effect a lot of things including asthma. Luckily as there a million BP drugs on the market, this might be an easy, albeit temporary fix. Changing the medication might solve problems temporarily, but ultimately, there is still underlying lung disease no matter what label you and your doctors chose to assign it. There will always be many and varied triggers and these will have to be dealth with as well.

There is also disease progression and the reality that things are likely to deteriorate as the lungs deteriorate due to disease. Such is the case with any chronic condition. The thing to do is to slow the effect over time by avoiding triggers and using appropriatte medications. This is never going to "go away" in and of itself.

This might not be what you want to hear as you have asked this same question before. A wise course of action is to accept there is problem and it will need to be dealth with for the rest of your life. On the other hand it is a managable and treatable illness and not at all a terminal death sentence in the vast majority of cases. This is not cancer.

What you have to decide is not what label to apply to the problem but how you intend to deal with it. I would strongly advise against using denial.

I did not mean to waste people's time and I admit I was a hard sell but the allergist today said that altace was the cause of my problems. I explained to him that I did not cough at random. I told him what triggered my attacks and there was a direct cause and effect that I could track and avoid. He was adamant with his solution and said that the altace alone could make me more sensitive to triggers.
I had reluctantly come to accept that I had asthma and that there is a lung problem. It's just that he was so sure of himself and in his diagnosis. He's the specialist so it again raised some doubt in my mind.
I won't raise the issue again.

You have all the typical symptoms of asthma triggers. I am not sure what a methacholine challenge test is. Did they do a pulmonary function test? That is one of the best ways to detect asthma. Sometimes allergists are kind of out there. I think I would put the pulmonologist on top of the list because that is his specialty. All he deals with is the lungs. If the asthma treatment is not helping, it can take a while to get the right inhalers for you. Hang in there. Make the pulmonologist work for you. Read up on asthma and write your questions down so when you go, you don't get nervous and forget. Take your wife with you. We wives sometimes know your symptoms better than you do. PS-Ask the same question as many times as you want. No one is bothered with it or they wouldn't respond! Hope this helps or as least gives you some support.

I'm allergic to HZT (hydrochlorthiazide sp?) - in bp meds - causes the dry hacky cough nothing stops - was given Prevacid once to be able to take an antibiotic and same cough came back - like another type of cough isn't putting me over the top :)!- anyway I looked on the website and it said something about a sensitivity to that drug would cause problems with Prevacid. A friend of mine with asthma also had a reaction to it with swollen tongue and throat closing and allergist said it was all in her head - another asthma specialist took the time and compared the drugs she'd been given and found HZT to be common in all and when she went off that she didn't swell any longer.

HEY I HAVE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU (POSSIBLY)--- my MOM, who is not on asthma medicine or have asthma, used to be on a medicine for her heart or blood, and she used to cough uncontrollably. It took 5 years (no joke) to figure out that WAS the problem. I will call her and figure out, she said it was blue I remember that because it was "the blue pill from hell" as she referred to it. They thought everything under the sun was wrong with her, but then after FIVE years, it had affected her so badly, that there was fluid collecting in her lungs. That showed up on x-ray, but not until FIVE years of her body getting exposed to it, SOOO have they xrayed you? If so, try that and even if nothing shows, only like 50 or 500 ml of fluid show up if they have u stand or do the side-ways xray, they need u to lay down, or give it time. OR, just switch medicines and give it a few months and note an improvements. I know it seems far-fetched but my mom went through something very similart, she would even cough in her sleep. Im calling her right now to get the name. GOOD LUCK and let us know how it goes!! I would be so glad if we could help somebody!!

Ok HEY E-mail ME!!! Ill have u talk to my mom, she went through all this stuff, she was on Quinaretic-- it was heck for her... e-mail me at jadefreund@yahoo.com I will give u her number, or she can call you. What works for her now: Cardizim LA a BP med, ask ur dr. about it, you take it in the morning, then she also takes on eat night-- called Avalide. She said her insurance required her to try Quinaretic first, but once she had a reaztio her DR told the insurance company, and they had to buy the Avalide (she does pay a higher co-pay but as you know it is worth it). E-mail me just DAILY strength in the title if u we'll see if there is any symptoms or whatever I can help w/.