Any asthmatics had the virus?

[UntamedWisteria]

As increasing numbers of people seem to be getting it, often very mildly, I am interested to know how asthmatics are affected - as we have 2 in our household.

(Hoping for some positive stories but interested in anyone's experience)

Thanks

Possibly. Not tested! I’m asthmatic. Usually very well controlled, only a problem if I get a chest infection. 3 weeks ago I started with a sore throat and cough. Within 5 days I was the worst I’d ever been. GP did a telephone consultation and prescribed steroids. I took the first dose of steroids but I had an asthma attack that was so bad that night DH had to call 999 (a first). The paramedic said I could well have it. I chose to have a nebuliser at home and not go to hospital due to the risk of catching it if I did go in! I’ve had to have two courses of steroids and start on a new medication (Montelukast) before I got on top of the breathlessness I’ve been experiencing. I’ve honestly never been this bad before.

So TLDR: I felt like I had a viral infection for a week, exacerbation of asthma for the following two that required additional medication to manage it. If you have asthmatics at home I’d keep them home and distanced

Yes. I didn’t have a formal diagnosis but I am sure that I had it. Took me about six weeks to recover. Asthma deteriorated to the extent that I was struggling to walk upstairs and I would get out of breath whilst sitting. My oxygen levels held up though - I have an oximeter. There was one particular Saturday evening where we thought I would need hospital treatment as my heart rate was increasing a lot whilst sitting. I managed to keep calm, upped by Salbutamol and ride it out. Almost back to normal now.

Wow, that sounds quite scary.

I think so, DH and DS both had classic symptoms, I have been achy slight fever and otherwise fine, just a little breathless on occasion but nothing my reliever won’t sort.

If it was Coronavirus I got off very lightly by all accounts.

DH's best friend has it at the moment and is asthmatic. He's on about day 3 I think. His symptoms are mild so far, he just has a cough, a temperature and has lost his sense of smell but is feeling ok so far, touch wood.

Yes. Am recovering but it's taking a very long time..am 5 weeks in My breathing was really bad but much more breathless than my typical asthma wheezing. Doubled my symbicort which seemed to keep the asthma exacerbation under control. Not sure how long it will take for me to feel better to br honest but I have other conditions as well and the chest/ breathing element is improving daily.

I have moderate asthma (Seretide 250 inhaler, regular steroids etc, I also have Addison’s disease and other health conditions) and I’m pretty sure I’ve had it - not tested as didn’t go to hospital. Had 39 degree fever on and off for 2 days, then it went to my chest and chest felt very tight and had weird sudden bouts of coughing but oddly enough my peak flow didn’t drop at all (!) and it didn’t really affect my asthma...! So odd. It was like nothing I’ve ever had before. It took me about 2.5 weeks to really get over it and I did feel very unwell but it was actually more the fever and muscle aches that made me feel awful. I kept expecting the cough to really get worse but thankfully it didn’t.

I think we have all had it in my household. My husband has asthma (for which he takes medication daily) and was in bed for about 6 days and then well but very easily tired (exhausted by short walks etc) for two weeks. When he was ill he had a really nasty cough. I had asthma as a child but none since and wasn’t on any medication but I was ill when he was, thought I was better for a couple of days then suddenly felt much worse: real tightness in the chest which made me feel very panicked. After about 4 weeks I called the doctor who prescribed a puffer (a reliever) and some antibiotics incase it was a chest infection. The tightness is still there in the mornings but I am pretty much better. We got ill at the end of February though! So it seemed unlikely that it would be covid at first but the GP thought it was possible as we had come back from holiday the week before. Interestingly I think she said she would have prescribed steroids at any other time but not now because of covid, don’t know if that means they shouldn’t be used if you have it or if she needed them for other patients?

I don't know for sure that I had it but I think that I did. Would love to know for sure as I'm in the shielding group (not for asthma though, my asthma is fairly mild but I have needed to use that breathing machine in the hospital- can't think of the name, and steroid tablets in the past)

I did have a cough but it very minor. No breathing difficulties, but I did run out breath very quickly doing things like walking up and down stairs or walking around the house. Very, very fatigued, slept a lot, and had chest pains. The chest pains were the scariest part for me. They continued for about a week after the other symptoms had passed. The other symptoms lasted for about two weeks, and then a third for the chest pains. I really want a test!

Since January I have been taking vitamin b, c and d a lot more frequently than I used to. I've since read that vitamin d may help lessen the severity of respiratory infections so I really think everyone should be taking it at the moment. (No idea if that's what helped me, or if I what I had was actually Coronavirus, but still think it's a good idea).

This is a cause of real anxiety for me. My son has been a seriously brittle asthmatic since infancy - many dozens of hospital admissions, blue, unconscious, voided bowels and bladder, skyrocketing BP etc etc. It has not been a major concern for the last 10 years, and well-controlled, generally, by Salbutamol and inhaled steroids, and a nebuliser at home. He now works frontline in a hospital, and hasn't revealed his condition to his employers-he's always been embarrassed by his condition, since childhood, when he was seen as being weird and different. He might been a grown-up, but mothers are entitled to worry, whatever their age.