celtic_mom

Hi again. Well my saga continues. I was finally thinking I was on the upswing again. I was getting over the latest cold and it appeared, at any rate, that it hadn't moved into my chest.

Today I was doing fine. Hardly any coughing. Mostly PND stuff, but all productive - phlegm responsible coughing.

Then tonight, after dinner, my DH said I looked flushed. I had noticed that I had been breathing harder and went to look in a mirror and sure enough, my cheeks were blood red. I had just finished eating a lot of strawberries, so now I'm wondering if it was that. I also realized that my right hand seemed very cold, much more so than my left.

The strange thing about my breathing though was that it wasn't like it was when I had the asthma attack. It's the opposite. I have no problem breathing out, but in. It feels like my chest is tight. When I cough real hard I loosen things up and seem to be able to breathe a bit better, but it doesn't last long.

So I got up and used my inhaler (which I haven't had to use since coming home from the hospital). That actually did seem to help some, so I went to be. About 3 hours later, I woke up and started coughing. I felt that tightness again, so I used the inhaler again. I also realized that my sinuses were blocked, so I used some saline to clear them. That did the trick, so I went back to bed.

Now it is another 3 hours later and I'm up again. Same thing, hard to inhale, not exhale. I feel stuff in my chest and can cough it out for temp relief, but it seems that unless I use the inhaler, it just immediately "fills" back up. Does that make sense? So this time I took a decongestant and some expectorant in addition to using the inhaler. I don't want to take an antihistamine because I'm having allergy testing on Monday and they said no antihistamines 10 days prior.

So now what? Do I need to call the doctor or is this a normal post "attack" occurrence that I just treat with the inhaler until it goes away? Does this sound like an asthmatic episode or an allergic one? And what is the difference? Does it sound like I could be getting another infection? I'm not coughing any colored phlegm up, but I wasn't before I went to the hospital either. But then again, I wasn't coughing much at all before this incident tonight.

Anyone with experience, please post, because I'm really uncertain as to how I should deal in these situations. I think my anxiety isn't helping matters either. Thanks.