I've got a cold and a nasty cough. My peak flows are fine and I'm not wheezing. But I just feel like I can't catch my breath and I'm coughing up all kinds of crap. It seems like I always get sicker than a normal person when I get a cold. I haven't gone to the dr yet, because they usually put me on antibiotics and I've already been on them three times since September. God forbid I would some day really, really need them. Just wondering if anyone else gets this way. Any suggestions, tips?

Would they really put you on antibiotics without testing, listening to your chest, or atleast doing an xray?

Before my doctor puts me on antibiotics, he listens to my chest, has my blood tested, I have an xray, and then, he evaluates everything to see if I need antibiotics (in this case antifungal, lol). This is also because I took way too much penicillin, amoxicillin, etc. as a kid due to constant severe ear infections. I think you develop a resistance to antibiotics???

So if you doctor doesn't do tests, then maybe you should switch doctors if you can. As you suggested, they're no point in giving out antibiotics. That's how we get really bad antibiotic resistant diseases!!

Would they really put you on antibiotics without testing, listening to your chest, or atleast doing an xray?

Before my doctor puts me on antibiotics, he listens to my chest, has my blood tested, I have an xray, and then, he evaluates everything to see if I need antibiotics (in this case antifungal, lol). This is also because I took way too much penicillin, amoxicillin, etc. as a kid due to constant severe ear infections. I think you develop a resistance to antibiotics???

So if you doctor doesn't do tests, then maybe you should switch doctors if you can. As you suggested, they're no point in giving out antibiotics. That's how we get really bad antibiotic resistant diseases!!

I'm given a different kind of antibiotic every time for that reason!
It sucks b/c some have weird ways u need 2 take(one I took, you couldnt eat for 2-3 hours before or after taking!), or made me really sick(Zpak) or just run me empty(Levaquin).
I've been put on them several times before with "a clear chest" so to say..nothign was heard in listening 2 my lungs and nothing was seen in the x-ray. For some reason my lungs don't wheeze unless I'm really, really sick. And inflammation won't show in x-rays either..
But everytime when the antibiotic works, we know it was an infection.

Have your doctor consider doing a full CBC. If your white blood count is elevated that means it's an infection...Hope you get better!

Wow I have never heard of resistance to antibiotics over such a short time!!! I know it happens on an (albeit short) evolutionary timescale of about 20-50 years but I never heard of taking a different one for each infection!!! I used to always take the one type - Suprax and almost always got rid of the infection.

Most Dr's rely more on experience than tests when it comes to diagnosing an infection. Different antibiotics focus in on different things. So if one antibiotic wont kill the infection, there is no sense giving the same one over and over. That is when they try a different one. In a Utopian world, every Dr would give tests to confirm infection. Most wont do it and it becomes the patient's choice to go with antibiotic therapy or not.

Since you have been sick for awhile and coughing, I would be thinking Pleurisy at this point. It also makes it hard to breathe as it hurts worse, the deeper you breathe in. It can cause intense pain and needs to checked out. Good luck and I hope you get to feeling better

Hi there Monacks -

My GP once told me asthmatics do tend to become 'sicker' than those without asthma. URTI hit the chest very quick with asthmatics.

From the time I get a cold at the sneezing, runny nose, sore throat stage it takes merely hours and the cold has gone to my chest. It is frustrating. I hope your on the mend soon.

You've been given some good pointers, but I notice that you say your 'cold' goes to your chest quickly and it is worse and lasts longer than most peoples'

Could it be that your immune system is compromised? I got pneumonia in less than one day some years back; my resistance was down from overwork, and I just got a little bit chilled. Couldn't believe it. So I try to get my rest and stay away from crowds. (I avoid chemical exposures like in cleaning compounds, paints, etc - they are very harmful & can damage your blood, kidneys, liver AND immune system - 2-butoxyethanol is one of the worst components & used in way too many products).

Too, penicillin wouldn't likely work for me, as mom said I had too much of it as a child & Dr warned her that it wouldn't be as effective for me in later years; we can be thankful there are many choices out there; but also, concerned, because if they don't help you (If the right one isn't being prescribed) you are wasting your time & helping bacteria/virus become more resistant.

my daughter is VERY prone to pneumonia and bronchitis........she HAD a doc who would see her when she started with cough, runny nose, cough, congestion, did I say COUGH??!! He would say, Oh it is just a cold or it is viral.....send her home with no meds or maybe a cough med that NEVER worked and lo-and-behold anywhere from24-48 hours later.....we were back with PNEUMONIA.........so we got sick of that mess and her doc now looks at her, sees ANY sign of congestion or infection and gets her on an antibiotic IMMEDIATLY........I think for HER this is necessary.......another thing about antibiotics is that they kill the GOOD bacteria as well as the bad and if you are on them LOOOONNGGG term( my son was for 6 months) you may get to the point you have to take this med to get your GOOD bacteria back.......the body is a funny thing......

Hi there Monacks -

My GP once told me asthmatics do tend to become 'sicker' than those without asthma. URTI hit the chest very quick with asthmatics.

From the time I get a cold at the sneezing, runny nose, sore throat stage it takes merely hours and the cold has gone to my chest. It is frustrating. I hope your on the mend soon.

Agreed.
A simple cold has me doing Xopenex every four hours. What's funny is my asthma reacts so soon now that usually it acts up before I feel the actual cold. Happened during my last flare up and the next day after seeing the doctor I realized I had come down with a NASTY cold..
What's funny is that while I was diagnosed with asthma pretty recently, all my life, everytime I got even a simple cold I'd cough and cough and cough..and everytime I needed codeine to calm it. Should have known there was something weird about that..

that's funny, pinkbanana, that's exactly what happened to me. My chest was getting bad before I ever had a sniffle... strange things asthma does...

Did you know that coughing and flu like symptoms - also are signs of too much chemical exposure of some kind?

As noted here on a prior post (http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?p=858772#post858772)

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I've just got a nasty cold. It started in my nose now and I can't even breathe through it. I have been sick on and off since September. Yes, I think my immune system is definately compromised. I've got a 2 and 4 year old, who go to daycare and I seem to pick up every germ from them. One of them gets sick every month, then I take them to the pediatrician (a haven for germs). The next thing you know, I'm sick. I think the having asthma just makes me more susceptible to illness and seems to turn a common cold into bronchitis.

I hope everyone DOES know the reason WHY asthmatics are more prone to serious chest infections than healthy people. Corticosteroids suppress the immune system very effectively and so any cold going around will easily be picked up by asthmatics and magnified. I was on huge doses of steroids all my life and I used to get 2 or 3 serious infections every year which required hospitalisation. It started with the eact same symptoms as described before. Runny nose/tonsilitis develops into very sore throat and finally into chest infection where asthma then makes it worse.
Ever since I asked to come off all medication, my asthma has dissappeared and most notably I never get serious chest infections any more!

For about a 7 year period I got colds, sore throat, then utlimately THE cough that would linger and linger. It all started after a bad case of bronchitis. I am on Advair 100/50 for now and hopefully won't have to increase it. I don't have a cough anymore (morning) and its been over a year since I've had a cold. I even survived nursing my son and husband through the flu this past fall. I don't attribute that entirely to Advair, even though I think it does keep the inflammation at check and help keep my open. I have started an aggressive vitamin, supplement, diet approach and I think all of it in combination has kept me well. Have you heard all the medical reports on the news about inflammation and how they think it at the heart of most diseases we have now? Two years ago, I started watching Doug Kaufmann on television. He is a nutrtitionist who has had quite a bit of education in fungi. He would talk about fungi and inflammation going hand in hand and how even cancer could be cured if doctors recognized this. I just laughed and thought it was way out there. But look what the new is saying now, even heart disease is an inflammation problem. Hummm! anitibiotics are a fungus - we take it over and over - fungus causes inflammation - more colds, more infections which causes the need for more antibiotics. See the cycle? I'm not saying antibiotics are unnecessary. They are a wonder drug for extreme cases. But we have overused them terribly.

Not only that but most types of liver disease including cirrhosis are inflammations!!! They are caused by infections ususally though so antibiotics are more likely to get rid of your inflammation than induce it. The same with asthma via chest infections. Taking them when they are unnecessary will however, do as u say above.
The reason why steroids can cause infections is that they lower our resistance (1st line of defence) and can thereby aggravate this kind of asthma.

jp3892 - out of curiosity, are the steroids your talking about inhaled steriods or the oral form?

Thanks, dolphins.

Any route by which u take the steroid (as long as its a corticosteroid) will lower your immune system. I don't know if any experiments have been carried out but I 'presume' that long term (months to years) doses of oral steroids would be more detrimental because more of it gets absorbed into the blood stream. I think this would affect general immunity but inhaled steroids would still very much affect resistance to airborne viruses in the lung.