Solaray2

tiercy
Hi all, just a quick question...I quit smoking a week ago (not that long, I know) but I still wheeze. I thought that if I weren't inhaling cigarette smoke then the wheezing would get better.

I'm on 400 mcgs of Pulmicort and take albuterol before walking outdoors. So when does the squeezing and wheezing stop? I'm very frustrated. I've been on Pulmicort for 5 months and albuterol for almost a year.

I knew when I quit smoking I wasn't going to get better overnight but, honestly, I thought the wheezing would stop since I was eliminating the irritant. Any thoughts?


Hi tiercy,

Hi my theory/thoughts are that perhaps it is too far gone.
Meaning the trigger (smoking) was not avoided and treated soon enough and now your lungs have become sensitized to other triggers as well.

I am thinking as an example, a person can start out having just one trigger perhaps cats or smoking which irritates your lungs.
After long term exposure (over a year) of this every day constant irritant
your lungs than become so irritated that you reach a point of no return & you develop a permanent condition asthma
in which your lungs or so sensitized that you can now be irritated by almost anything (humidity,allergies, exercise, smoking,etc)
even if you are avoiding the original trigger smoking/cats.

The asthma meds are supposed to reduce inflammation but apparently dosages and meds have to be adjusted at different periods in your life.
Meaning for example if you are under a period of a lot of stress you might require more powerful anti-inflammatory meds (oral steroids)

You said you only quit smoking a week ago.
Perhaps your body needs more than a week to recover and for the anit inflammatory to kick in.

I believe the you need to give at least 2 weeks for the Pulmacort to kick in while of course avoiding the irritant (smoking)
Perhaps your doctor might want to give you additional meds to add to your regiment, increase existing dosage, or go with powerful oral steroids (which can have bad side effects), etc.