Ouch - Asthma Message Board

Capttom48 · 10-01-2008, 02:14 PM

Hi guys,
This is not a serious problem but one that is a constant reminder of my asthma. My ribs, chest and back are ALWAYS sore. I have been dealing with asthma for only 2 years and I have been dealing with this for the whole time. I was wondering what others do to control this. I'm tired of flinching whenever anyone gets near me. It is irksome.

Thanks,
Tom

Titchou · 10-01-2008, 04:19 PM

Ths is not normal for someone with controlled asthma. I'd see your pulmonologist and find out what's going on.

Capttom48 · 10-01-2008, 05:14 PM

You're right. I see him regularly and we have discussed this. He says that since I have CVA that is difficult to control and I have frequent flares, the soreness is just a side effect and not that uncommon.

I also see an asthma specialist at the university lung center and he agrees that I have cough variant asthma and we all agree that it is not well controlled. The only suggestion the asthma specialist had was to inhale lidocaine in my nebulizer 4 times a day to help suppress the coughing urge.

I was never able to try it because my insurance wouldn't cover it. Walgreens told me that it would be over $400 a month without insurance and I can't afford that. The Specialist appealed to the insurance company but no luck.

We have tried various meds and I'm much better than when first diagnosed but I still am prone to coughing attacks. I have been tested and retested and had a CT scan of my upper airway but they just come back to persistent CVA. As a result I am sore pretty much all the time.

I just wanted to know what folks who are experiencing this do. A hot shower helps but you can't stay in the shower all day.

Thanks,
Tom

Titchou · 10-01-2008, 08:12 PM

Sorry, didn't realize it was CVA...that's a horse of a different color. I'll give you an old wives' remedy....inhale Campho-phenique. Just little on a kleenex and inhale. Very soothing. I rarely get colds but when I do, with the asthma, I have a nasty cough - especially when I go to bed at night. This is the only thing that really helps control it so I can sleep. I'm one of those people for whom codeine is stimulant so taking cough medicine with that in it only cranks me up. Anyway, this is soemthing cheap and easy to try (should be available at any drug store).

snowdrift · 10-02-2008, 08:17 AM

I don't have long term results yet, because it's only been a couple of months, but I improved that constant achiness through exercise. My CVA was semi-controlled and I was constantly achey when I started. I use some of the weight machines at the YMCA that strengthen chest and back muscles. Shortly after beginning that regimen, the aching from coughing got *a lot* better. Dunno what mechanism is at work there. My guess is that coughing and pain made me hunch over a lot, but once I started exercising, I developed better posture and also made the muscles better able to withstand the stress of coughing.

Incidentally, my GP had me on singulair and advair 250/50 and my asthma was semi-controlled. The GP thought that was fine because CVA can be harder to control and she was most concerned about more immediately threatening symptoms. My pulmonologist, however, recently raised my Advair to 500/50 and I've been symptom-free for several days now--for the first time in two years--even when exercising and even through a major change to weather. The difference was just in recognizing that a constant cough *is* a symptom of a problem, and that conservative treatment was not working.

Dunno if that applies to your situation at all, but I am breathing so much better, not short of breath, not coughing, not gasping for breath when I talk quickly. All of those symptoms had been fairly mild, but constant. The higher dose of steroids is making my voice a little hoarse, but I can live with that.