Does this mean Asthma

[DiegosMomHasGotItGoingOn]

I've had a persistent cough worse at night, lots of phlegm, shortness of breath for a few weeks.

Twice now I have had what I imagine is an asthma attack triggered by my dog allergy.

I went to the doctor yesterday after another day of really struggling to get air in and all the coughing. They have given me a 5 day course of predinsolone and said they can't hear any infection but I am very wheezy and it's no wonder I feel rubbish when I can't breathe.

I had a Feno test result of 138 and the nurse said it is a clear case of adult onset asthma in her opinion. Take the steroids and come back if no improvement to see the asthma nurse.

So is it likely to be asthma or can lung inflammation just be a thing on it's own which will clear up with the steroids?

I always remember that when my asthma started at age 19 it was worse at night.

The pred will allow you to breathe and improve your symptoms but once the course is finished you may find that you get breathless again. You must go back and see the nurse. She may start you on a steroid inhaler which you MUST take regularly.

Thanks @BG2015 I was hoping that the steroids would clear it up but ~I took the last dose today and still struggling with breathless and coughing so will have to make another appointment.

Definitely sounds like asthmas. As p said you'll need to get a preventer I haler, and also learn to take ventolin whenever you get symptoms. It took several goes before I found a preventer that worked for me. Also ended up on monteleukast to stop night time coughing

Asthma is a catch all phrase for inflammation of the airways. The feno picked that up, but downer mean you'll always have asthma now either, knowing your triggers is the thing. Good luck, don't panic

I had post viral asthma a few years ago.

My symptoms sounded like yours, coughing, and audibly wheezing (especially at night), and I also had something like an asthma attack on a flight when the person in front of me sprayed a large amount of perfume.

I was prescribed the brown inhaler (which I took religiously) and it make a real and nearly immediate difference.

I had to use the blue inhaler twice.

After about a year I saw the asthma nurse who said that although he could see the inhalers were helping, my base level lung capacity wasn't significantly below normal. So marked it up as 'unconfirmed'.

A few months later I tried to stop the brown inhaler, just to see if it had passed. It hadn't, and I was immediately wheezy again.

This summer I tried again to atop the brown inhaler, and so far, I am rarely wheezy, and don't cough any more than average.

So I'm hopeful it's passed.

Thanks everyone, I have been referred for a spirometry test and given a blue inhaler.