Asthmatic husband

[Chester1980]

My husband is asthmatic and struggled over Christmas and new year with his chest. Would you consider him as someone vulnerable? He’s nearly 40.

I am in a fortunate position where I can work from home and hopefully he can. My office is saying people who are vulnerable, or live with someone vulnerable, can work from home. We have a toddler in nursery, so I’m inclined to withdraw her so she doesn’t spread it to my husband.

What are people’s thoughts on this kind of situation? Is asthma enough of a concern? Over Christmas and new year he was using his blue inhaler multiple times a day. He said it’s the worst he ever felt and he thought an artery would explode when coughing!

My parents live far away and are pretty isolated. I’ve been doing online shopping for them and told them to stay in as they are elderly and unwell.

Bump

There hasn’t been clear guidance on this.

There was a doctor on the news who said that you were in the vulnerable group if you had asthma and it required more than your blue inhaler to resolve it.

I’ve been hospitalised for a week previously with asthma, and have been to a&e with it a number of times. I would assume I am in the vulnerable group on the basis that if I caught Coronavirus I am more likely to end up using up NHS resources, but I am waiting to hear more guidance.

He’s certainly not in the risk free category but the information on Asthma UK is quite limited at the moment. I don’t think we really know how it affects asthmatics although logically I suppose asthma isn’t one of the things I would choose to have alongside an upper respiratory virus.

His asthma doesn’t sound well controlled and that needs looking at in any event.

I’m continuing as normal. Work expect me in. I can work from home but my husband can’t so I don’t see the point of isolating (unless I show symptoms) until the government locks everything down or my husbands work closes.

If you can all stay at home it certainly wouldn’t hurt

i'm trying to find this out too. My son has 2 puffs of his brown inhaler each morning and evening and any cold sends him into needing rescue steroids very quickly.

I have asked the GPs to call me to talk through things. I just want to check that the standard care plan remains the same - in terms of his peak flow etc.

Hi op, I am also worried about my husband who has poorly controlled asthma, he uses his blue inhaler multiple times a day every day and takes frequent courses of steroids. My children are school age, and I'm worried about fines/legal action if we take them out of school, but I'm worried if we don't they'll bring it home. I think if you can withdraw your toddler it would do more good than harm for the time being.

If he’s using his blue multiples times a day he needs to be using a preventer ( usually brown or white / red ) as well. Lots of blue shows that he’s poorly controlled.

Just to reassure you, from what I’ve read this virus seems more risky to those with diabetes , heart disease and high blood pressure, rather than those who have asthma or who are immuno suppressed.

Disclaimer - I’m not a doctor, it’s just what I’ve read in the medical journals .

Thank you for your responses. It’s so difficult, isn’t it? I think the fact our wee one is in nursery helps....It must be so difficult for those having to weigh this up with the possibility of school fines too.

My office is going to have to be flexible on this. I won’t be able to work in core hours if my toddler is at home. Where do they draw the line? Someone I know said they will try and pull this and work from home as their dad has lung issues (who doesn’t live with them and they rarely see), but won’t limit their public life in anything else. I feel like it’s people like that making it worse on those genuinely vulnerable and afraid.

His parents are in their 70s and asthmatic too. They’re self isolating.

Thank you @Double3xposure. Hopefully asthma is low risk. I’m such a worrier....I keep thinking that if it’s bad for him that there won’t be enough ventilators. Every year he seems to get a bad chest. It’s often cats that set it off though!

Your husband is 40. If it comes to making life and death decisions over ventilators, he’ll get a ventilator.

@nameofchanges it’s utterly heartbreaking....as on the other hand I know that my elderly and ill father probably wouldn’t...and so many people must feel so worried

Yes. I have elderly parents with health conditions.

On the plus side, they have found more effective ways of treating it, and will continue to do so. So as times go on, we should see the proportion of fatal cases decline.

I'm asthmatic and my breathing is really affected when I get a cold so I'm wondering the same thing. In fact, the breathlessness that is getting reported is the only thing making me a bit anxious.

I read yesterday that when they refer to underlying conditions, they are talking about COPD and very severe lung diseases so I'm not sure asthma does fit into that category.

They really need to start setting things out more clearly because the lack of information and understanding is just adding to the panic.

Isn't it also type 2 diabetes that is more of a risk than type 1? I'm sure that was what was being said originally.

I read yesterday that when they refer to underlying conditions, they are talking about COPD and very severe lung diseases so I'm not sure asthma does fit into that category.

I keep reading stuff like that but then when the WHO say things like this:

Does the new coronavirus affect older people, or are younger people also susceptible?
People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Older people, and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.

So they have asthma right up there as an example of an underlying condition.

I'm swaying between this instinctive felling that asthma sufferers must be at risk, the relief from the fact that the case studies from Wuhan say no significant mortality from asthma and COPD, the fact that the WHO keep saying asthma despite that and the feeling that people are presenting information in such a way to produce a certain effect on behaviour rather than sticking to facts, but down that road conspiracy theories abound.

I'm moderately asthmatic. I take Fostair and once every few years need rescue steroids, always after a cold. Any cold / flu like virus sets of my asthma badly. Its 25+ years since I've needed to be hospitalised though, and for the most part my asthma is really well controlled - I don't need a reliever inhaler on a day to day basis.

I'm not panicking, I don't think asthmatics are at terribly high risk - logically I think we must be at a slightly higher risk than someone without asthma, but the stats are lumped in with other chronic lung conditions like COPD, and I think these are skewing them a bit and making them seem worse than they are.

I am being very careful with my asthma just now though - trying to avoid all colds etc (so have significantly reduced social contact), taking my inhalers as I always have, and extra Vitamin D (which is proven to help fight these viruses). I don't want to get Covid 19 on top of an existing flare up, and I don't want to have to take oral steroids (which do impact on immune system functioning).

@intotheunknown - I use Fostair too but also with a ventolin inhaler. I've increased my fostair - the asthma nurse always told me to increase it whenever I have a cold and I've had a recurring cold since December.

kirinm - have you been told that you can use Fostair instead of salubutamol / ventolin (your blue inhaler) if you need to? It has the same effect as a reliever, then you get extra doses of the steroid at the same time (which you may need if your breathing merits a reliever). It's taking me a while to get used to this, I was using Fostair morning and night and salbutamol if needed during the day (which for me is only really when I get a cold), but I'm trying to swap over to this method (explained to me by our asthma nurse), it makes a lot of sense. I was told not to take more than 2 puffs of Fostair at any one time (so not like when I was on Clenil, which I could double to 4 puffs morning and night) as the reliever element would give me side effects (ever 2 puffs makes me a little shaky) - but more throughout the day is ok.

Ah I was told that I could increase my Fostair to 3-4 puffs twice a day. I haven't used it in the same way as I use ventolin. It doesn't feel like it provides the same relief tbh. I will keep it on me I think.

I read yesterday that when they refer to underlying conditions, they are talking about COPD and very severe lung diseases so I'm not sure asthma does fit into that category

Does anyone have a link to advice/comments on COPD please? DH is 61 and has it. I might have had a mini-meltdown after he'd gone to work this morning, followed by a stern talking-to and a strong dose of pulling-myself-together. But it's no good pretending that I'm not worried sick and would be quite happy to keep him under lock and key in the bathroom

I have asthma, both brown and blue inhalers and have developed breathlessness they aren't helping with - but not so bad I feel like I need an a&e trip. Have been given some steroids to help which have to an extent but I'm still somewhat breathless and my entire chest area is now really sore. 111 put me in their Coronavirus call back queue yesterday but nothing as of yet. I'm hoping the full course will resolve this but it's shaken me a bit. It's been over 25 years since I've needed additional steroids.

Bamboozled - I'm afraid I haven't seen any "advice" beyond saying that someone with COPD or other lung diseases will be considered vulnerable. There's no guidance (i've seen) that explains what that actually means.

Thanks @kirinm There's so much stuff flying around I didn't know if I'd missed something official. I'll go back into wait-and-see mode

I can’t work out how to link, but Time magazine just tweeted an article about Covid-19 and asthma (@TIME on Twitter) which I found reassuring.

I would say he is at risk yes. But in some sense his asthma sounds well managed?.

My partner is 26 and has very bad asthma to the point he ended up in ICU and very nearly put in an induced coma. At the moment he is still working. He can't work from home as it isn't that sort of job.
If he starts to feel ill though straight away he needs to be off work. He's taken all his medication so hopefully we will stay safe.

I'm a bit worried, because my doctors have apparently suspended all asthma reviews, so I'm going into tree pollen season (my worst trigger) on Fostair for the first time with no review since I started it. The receptionists are just saying they have more serious things to deal with, so unless I have symptoms I can't even speak to anyone for advice. It's upset me a bit actually, she made me feel like a time-waster.