Any asthma experts around??

[CatkinToadflax]

Hi all

Any asthma experts around? I’ve been off work for the past two weeks due to horrendous asthma that began with a chest infection (signed off by GP and work is being extremely supportive). My asthma nurse is on holiday and I’m desperate for her to return to work her magic; in the meantime the GP is being fab but ‘maintaining’ me rather than being able to solve the problem if that makes sense.

So I’m always on seretide 125, ventolin and montelukast and usually they work brilliantly and I hardly need the ventolin. However the past 2 weeks have been a bit of a nightmare - on prednisolone as well as seretide and ventolin many times a day and peak flow is still very low and I’m still wheezy and exhausted. Please can I have sympathy, wine, cake and any suggestions!!

I'm not an expert but fellow sufferer, so may sympathies and how much of the seretide are you on?

Are you seen by a respiratory specialist? Would be useful to ask for a referral anyway. Not sure if asthma nurse can put anything extra in place on top of what you're on. Maybe they can, I just see GP who goes with hospital guidance for me anyway. But most of my meds are consultant prescribed. Maybe an antihistamine? In case something is triggering a reaction?

I'm not an expert, but I've noticed my asthma got a lot worse during and since storm Ophelia - all the dust in the air I guess.

Hopefully it will ease soon

Did you have antibiotics for the chest infection? It could be that your asthma symptoms are a hang over from the original infection. You might need more steroids. I'd recommend taking 2-10 puffs of your ventolin via a large volume spacer (so not an aerochamber) every 4 hours or so.

See the GP again - today if you're coughing up mucky stuff, have a temperature or the wheezing is leaving you unable to speak a sentence.

Saharan dust brought over by the storm is a known trigger for many asthmatics, Asthma UK have a very helpful Facebook page that puts out updates and warnings

www.asthma.org.uk/Saharan-dust

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. Yes the yellow air earlier this week definitely didn’t help at all!

I’ve had antibiotics and finished them now and I think the infection is pretty much gone, it’s just the wheezes and exhaustion that remain.

Yes I think I’ll ask for a referral to a specialist - good idea. It was mooted by my asthma nurse about 18 months ago but then never actually happened.

Thank you all x

I would be taking the seretide 2 puffs 4 times a day using a spacer, after taking the ventolin to open your airways (obviously check with your gp but that is what my asthma nurse has told me to do). Also montelukast works best if you take it at night, and an antihistamine wouldn't hurt if the dust has affected you, isn't asthma fun!