This year I've had repeated respiratory infections - five in six months. The only time I've really been well was February, and I've been sick continuously since Easter. With all the respiratory crud, my breathing went very bad and I was sent to a pulmonologist last month, who immediately told me I must have asthma. But the Pulmonary Function Tests came back normal, as did the spirometry they did at today's followup appointment. So now he says I do NOT have asthma and the normal PFT results rule out COPD. He's doing some more testing just to rule things out, but it doesn't sound like he has a clue what's going on. I'm fine when I'm sitting or lying still, but as soon as I start moving around I get very short of breath. I have to choose between which basic household task I'm going to do and which I'm going to ignore because I know I haven't got the breath or energy to do them all. I have trouble raising my voice loudly enough to sustain a conversation. I'm coughing occasionally during the day, but pretty much every night until I take cough medication to deal with it. My chest hurts on and off. I saw a cardiologist last week and he's going to do a test but he thought the problem must be my lungs. Before I got sick, I used to walk three miles several times a week for fun - now I can't even manage two blocks. And so on. I'm only 41 and I feel like a useless old wreck.
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~ asthma, allergies, anxiety, arthritis, back problems, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia
I'm so sorry you're feeling so bad and I can't imagine how stressful you must be feeling at this point not knowing what's going on. My son has had asthma and I would assume as well that you might have it as well as his lungs were always clear yet he would have issues every few months. Have you discussed with your doctor about allergies? Those who has asthma have worse attacks during the allergy season. You may have a mild case of asthma that is inflamed by the allergy season or maybe it's just the allergies themselves.
I hope he's able to find out what's going on soon so you can finally have some answers, wishing you the best!
Thanks for the well-wishes. I'm VERY much better now. I'm still coughing a bit of crud up and clearing my throat quite a lot, and every now and then something sends me into a major coughing fit that would apparently go on getting worse forever if I didn't take a tessalon perle to break the cycle, but I can walk a mile now and I can go shopping and do the normal things I need to do without distress. Given a few more weeks, I'm hoping I'll be entirely back to normal.
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~ asthma, allergies, anxiety, arthritis, back problems, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia
The following user gives a hug of support to Kaji: Jessica415 (07-16-2012)
hi Kaji. i just discovered your post and am going through a similar thing. i'm glad youre doing better. did you ever find out what it was you had? was it in fact asthma? and were you wheezing at all at any point?
thanks in advance for any response.
