Bronchial Spasms?????????? - Asthma Message Board

DedeMN · 12-14-2002, 09:35 AM

Does anyone know what Bronchial Spasms feel like. I have Asthma symptoms and pain in my lung that started after a bad chest infection and I am getting these wierd chest throbs all the time and my doc said it is not my heart. He gave me Advair. But does anyone know what the Bronchial Spasms feel like and what you take for them.

Thanks
Dede

wrin · 12-17-2002, 10:26 AM

the particular symptom you're talking about is something totally subjective -- that kind of chest tightness feels different for everyone.

Some people hear it more than they feel it, some people don't feel the tightness so much as an urge to cough, some feel it as shortness of breath, some feel it as pain. It's almost impossible to say there's one particular way that it feels.

If you are concerned that you are experiencing this kind of bronchoconstriction, it is actually rather easy to hear with a stethoscope. Talk to your doctor, and he'll be able to let you know what he hears and what he thinks it is.

DedeMN · 12-17-2002, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by wrin:
the particular symptom you're talking about is something totally subjective -- that kind of chest tightness feels different for everyone.

Some people hear it more than they feel it, some people don't feel the tightness so much as an urge to cough, some feel it as shortness of breath, some feel it as pain. It's almost impossible to say there's one particular way that it feels.

If you are concerned that you are experiencing this kind of bronchoconstriction, it is actually rather easy to hear with a stethoscope. Talk to your doctor, and he'll be able to let you know what he hears and what he thinks it is.

Really, you can hear the spasms? I guess I thought of having my doctor listen with the stethoscope to see if he hears anything but I haven't asked him to, he'd have to sit there and listen until I get one which wouldn't be long but I just thought it would be wierd to ask him. It's really hard to climb stairs and hills and all that cause I get this intense tight feeling in my chest and lung and I get Asthma and lots of pain. I feel the urge to cough, tightness, pain and all. So, it's been a nightmare and I'm suppose to take those steriods, methleprelosone (SP) and I haven't yet cause I hate the side effects. Gee, I can't even lift a gallen of milk and I've been a body builder for a long time and it is hard to work out now. When I take a deep breath I feel the tightness real bad and it also feels like someone punched me in the back in a few places. But I was wondering in my post cause I get these wierd throbs right in the middle of my chest pretty much behind the sternum and sometimes they get real bad, not sure what they are though

hopefully I will find out soon.

Thanks for responding you seem to know a lot and I was gonna ask you a few questions cause you seem to know a lot about Asthma and all that.

Thanks
Dede T

wrin · 12-19-2002, 10:59 AM

Spasms indirectly cause a wheeze, and you can hear them quite clearly with a stethoscope. They can sound like a lot of different things depending on what kind of wheezes, but one of the most common among asthmatics are polyphonic wheezes. (when they get bad they sound kind of like a sack of bagpipes being thrown on a couch.)

Some people can hear their wheezing at the mouth. That's a pretty good indicator that you're not doing so hot.

Even if you can't hear it at the mouth or you only feel it happen acutely on occasion doesn't mean the constriction isn't always present. I've walked into the doctors' office feeling perfectly healthy for a physical, and having him tell me I have end expiratory wheezing.

Are you taking a course of prednisone? Only for about 7 days, right? It does have some nasty side-effects, but it is an extremely powerful anti-inflammatory, and if it's inflammation that's causing your problem, it almost definitely will make you feel better.

carolyn1 · 01-12-2003, 05:42 AM

Hi

My physician used a stethoscope to detect bronchospasms. With these, I do not wheeze; but my lungs feel as though they are like balloons which are filling up with air and then I have a very difficult time wheezing.