asthmatic bronchitis- I am so confused!

[mauvais]

I am 26 years old and have no history of asthma.

I developed a cold this week, symptoms mainly in my head. It was one of the worst colds I've ever had, I was tired and also had a fever and headache. After about three days it suddenly moved into my chest. I was coughing a lot, could barely breathe and would wheeze after walking more than 50 ft. I went to emergency care and was given a breathing tx and chest xray. The doc diagnosed me w/ asthmatic bronchitis and prescribed a 5 day course of azithromycin, methylprednisolone, albuterol inhaler, and cough syrup w/ codeine for sleeping.

I assumed that I was sick solely due to this cold, but the diagnosis of asthmatic bronchitis surprises me. Does this mean that I had asthma and never knew? Is the asthma or the bronchitis going to be chronic? I have never had either before.

[MandyPandy]

They do make it confusing don't they??? I beleive what this means (although you would have to ask the doctor to be sure) is that you had a cold that developed into bronchitis which is giving you asthmatic like flare ups. Severe bronchitis can trigger asthma like attacks. My Mom gets bronchitis about 1 time a year and although she does not have astma all the time when she gets bronchitis she has asthma like symptoms and is put on an inhailer. Last year her bronchitis got really bad and I had to take my breathing machine for asthma over to her and give her treatments. I insisted that she go to the doctor becuase she could have pneumonia and sure enough she did. Her doctor said it was a good thing I gave her breathing treatments and made her go to the doctor. She does not have asthma all the time and I doubt you will either. my asthma also gets much worse when I am sick. I would definnitley keep an eye on it after you are "better" and make sure that you are not having asthma symptoms afterwards.

good luck & i hope you feel better soon!
Amanda

[mauvais]

Amanda, thank you! You've made me feel a lot better!

[MandyPandy]

I'm glad I could help & I hope you are starting to feel better!

[catcopy]

I'm so glad I found this post! Just reading it already has helped me calm down.
Whenever I get a cold anymore it seems like it goes to my chest and I can't get over it on my own. It gets tight and nothing but an antibiotic helps. Last week I started feeling "tight" in my chest and wheezing. My cough sounded dry and horrible. I went to my doctor and he put me on methylprednisolone 4mg. It helped my wheezing a little bit but my chest still felt tight and my cough still deep and dry. I have this weird little pain in my upper right side of my back too. I went back to my doctor and he put me on azithromycin 250 mg. and took a chest x-ray (haven't gotten the results back yet). That was several days ago and today I still feel tight and deep coughing. I have been taking Mucinex expectorant too, drinking lots of water and hot tea. I am NOT taking breathing treatments or anything like albuteral, etc. I have a mitral valve prolapse problem and things like that speed my heart rate up sooooo much it scares me. Even the steriods did for the first 2 days. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get this stuff loosened up inside me? I have panic attacks too and this breathing thing makes me really panic and worry! How long do these episodes last - days, weeks, longer?