Asthma bad but SATS showing ok (98%)

[ChilliWillies]

Struggling with a bout of cold/throat infection that won’t go away. Feel like I can’t get a full breath of air and my lungs often hurst when trying to do so, but not classically wheezy. Routinely on Relvar daily inhaler plus Blue emergency inhaler. Emergency inhaler wasn’t doing anything two weeks ago (5 lots of 2 puffs in about three hours) so GP sent me to A&E for a nebuliser. A&E took my SATS, saw they were good and basically went ‘meh’ and sent me round to their GP service instead. To be fair to him, the GP looked horrified, upped my daily inhaler to twice the daily recommended amount and gave me steroid tablets and antibiotics. But it’s still not completely gone and yesterday suddenly got worse again, so back on steroids and antibiotics, but SATS are still good. On my peak flow I normally get 475-ish when I’m healthy, I’m getting 400 at the moment, BUT it’s really hard to do and hurst/ makes it hard for me to breathe for the next ten minutes.
So - does anyone get this where their asthma feels bad but the SATS/peak flow are ok/not that bad? How is yours treated? And have you found anything that can help support your immune system? I’m also taking iron (liquid form), B12, Vitamin D, Omega 3, Vitamin E and Glucosamine & Chondroitin (also have Fibromyalgia, so the last one is for my joints).

I don't tend to suffer with my asthma but had a bad couple of weeks recently and thinking back I had the same at this time of year 2 years ago so I'm starting to think it's maybe allergy related that triggers it. 2 years ago I'd had a cold so I put it down to that but I'm going to pre-empt it next year and start on the antihistamines and inhalers! I took my brown inhaler twice a day and blue one 4 times a day for a week and was still struggling so ended up logging a call with the practice nurse. She hesitated about giving me steroid tablets so put me on an extra brown inhaler dose in the middle of the day and I threw antihistamines, nasal spray etc at it and it's pretty much cleared up without needing them. My VO2max was 98% although I'm not sure the one on my watch is very accurate and my peak flow was only just below normal (I can blow 450 on a good day). I got a telling off for not using my inhalers regularly so now I have to take the brown one for a month and "consider" (i.e. she'll tell me off again if i don't) taking it long term.
Do you use a spacer? I find that makes a huge difference to using the inhalers.

Mines rubbish at the moment, for the first time in years!

My peak flow is generally always pretty good (around 550) and has dropped to just over 500, but I just feel rubbish. Half term next week so I'm planning on booking in with the asthma nurse

Asthma sufferers can be super saturaters. So oxygen readers (sats) are useless. Need to go by how you feel. Added to which you could be struggling and not have ‘the wheeze’ so many drs look for, but again you can have silent asthma! Again you have to go by how YOU feel.
Healthunlocked has an excellent asthma forum.
A good asthma nurse or a gp who is a specialist in asthma management is the key ime.
Hope you feel some improvement soon.

Mine was like this last year (? Covid in the early days when they weren’t testing in the community). I had a severe attack, had to get a paramedic out. Sats were 99-100%! Breathing rate was very fast! I had steroids, antibiotics, had to go on to a stronger inhaler and start on Montelukast (was very well controlled before this!). I had 4 courses of steroids to even start to see an improvement
Gradually it’s improved, I’m still under the respiratory team, being monitored because I have nodules in my lungs. I’m shocked that A&E said your Sats were okay so you’re fine! It’s a poor indicator of health in asthmatics because we tend to compensate for a long time.

Interesting thread. DS's asthma is like this when it gets bad. What we find if we keep the oxymeter on is that his SATS are great, and then they drop dangerously low for a bit before creeping back up. So despite obvious problems, doctors tend to say he's fine if they catch the oxygen at 98%.

Asthma has to be scarily bad before your sats drop.

If you get this a lot I'd say your daily reliever treatment isn't good enough and needs stepping up.

Thanks everyone, really useful to get your perspectives. @emmathedilemma I don’t use a spacer currently, but I’ve got one for my son, so will try that when I need my emergency inhaler if I’m at home. My daily inhaler is steroid powder so spacer doesn’t work with that.
@schofieldsunderpants definitely off to the asthma nurse - like a PP, I got really told off last time for not taking my asthma seriously enough - I think we just crack on abs ignore it a lot of the time, but really earliest treatment possible is best!
@Bargebill19 I’ve just found a really good asthma nurse at the practice, so will be working with her on it.
@ThePontiacBandit that sounds frightening, glad you’re gradually recovering.