Difficulty in Speaking! - Asthma Message Board

DITAB · 03-30-2007, 09:25 PM

Do any of you fellow asthma sufferers find yourself having difficulty in speaking at times? Either while on the telephone, or walking with the cell phone -- I find myself short of breath while trying to make my points. I'm quite a talker and this is a big problem for me.
Anyone have similar symptoms?
Ditab

MillyMollyMandy · 03-31-2007, 07:20 AM

Hi DITAB
Breathlessness while speaking is a sign that the asthma is maybe not under the best control. It may be necessary to increase dosage of preventer, if you are on one, or starting one if you are not. If you don't already, keep a regular log of your peak flow readings, this will identify any problem times.
Hope this helps, Mandy

Capttom48 · 03-31-2007, 08:59 AM

I have had a problem with this lately also. If I speak more than a couple of sentences at a time , I have to stop and catch my breath for a moment. the more I persist the worse it gets. It has happened when I visited my pulmonologist so he is aware of it. We have increased my meds but it is still a problem. I guess I'll give it time. Lucky for me I'm not a big talker. I have discontinued giving training classes at my job because I can't handle reading the material out loud to the class. too bad, I enjoyed that. I hope it's just a temporary setback. Good luck tweaking your meds. If it persists run,don't walk, to your doctor.
tom

DITAB · 03-31-2007, 01:50 PM

Hi Capttom,
Thank you so much for your reply. What did your pulmonologist actually do after he became aware of the problem? I'm on QVAR 40 which I've been taking only once a day -- I've now increased to two sprays. I thought QVAR was great (much better than Advair which is always on the verge of being taken off the market). But now I dunno --- I am a big talker and sometimes it's a problem particularly when I'm doing another activity along with talking.
I'm hoping the increased dosage will help -- along with a spray of Albuterol.
Let me knoiw how you're doing.
Ditab

Capttom48 · 03-31-2007, 02:37 PM

Hi Ditab,
My doc sent me for more testing. I had the barium swallow test about a week ago and was tested for allergies last week. I haven't gotten the result back from the barium swallow yet but I have no airborne allergies. I am just very reactive to irritants (Smoke, fragrances, stress, anger, laughter, overexertion and lots of etc.) I am almost rooting for acid reflux so I have something I can focus on.

As for my meds, he increased my dosage of the dreaded Advair to 500/50 from 250/50, and gave me singulair and protonix as well as the ever present albuterol.

I have only been diagnosed since last fall so I'm hoping for more improvement as we explore possible causes.

When I find I have difficulty speaking it seems to get worse when I think about it. then I'll start to hurry my sentence or adjust my breathing and I really screw it up. Best to make my sentences brief and to listen a lot. It makes me seem like the strong silent type. (Little do they know!)

Anyway, as you can see, I have absolutely no problem being "long winded" on line. Good luck to us all.
tom