I have just been diagnosed with asthma in January?

Question

I am having a very hard time with this. I can't seem to go one day without feeling like I can't breath. I wake up in the middle of the night and I have to take a breathing treatment. I am on Atrovent 4x's a day, Albuterol inhaler 4x's, Breathing Machine 4x's and Singulair 10mg once a day. I want to know does it get better and how can I help to make it better? I can't hardly do anything without getting breathless. I was very active and have always been but I got sick a year and have been down ever since. I have never had asthma and didn't know what to do when I was diagnosed with it at age 33. I have been in and out of the hospital so many times with this over this last year. I have to carry a neublizer with me everywhere I go. I need all the help I can get so I can get back on my feet again. I am sick of being sick. I want to know the best way to handle asthma and go on with my daily life. Serious anwers please.

Answer 1

Wow, your situation sounds familiar. But I must say, you seem to be on too many things at one time.

First, you have to figure out why this happened. Are you living in a place which is polluted? What changed, did you move? Have you gone through a major stress that weakened your immune system?

Do the basics to help asthma. Make sure you have no animals or carpeting in your bedroom. It must be a clean, dust free, chemical free place. Wash your bedding weekly in very hot water to kill dust mites, an aggrivator of asthma.

Next, get an air purifier. In the winter, more pollutants get trapped in the home. Open windows when there is good weather.

Limit clean fluids in your home, use instead more natural things. Get tested for your allergies and get those out of your life. Do things to boost your immune system; suppliments like NAC, Quercetin (good for lungs especially), C, A, E vitamins.

Do you have gas heat and appliances? Those have been found to be very bad for asthmatics.

Are you near a body of water? Being near water helps because you get cleaner air.

I would discuss with your doctor all of these medications you are on. I take issue with all of them at one time. Even at my worst, I was on a daily in the morning and evening and then a rescue.

If you'd like to email me for more information and support, feel free. Take care.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

i've had asthma for most of my life and i'll tell you a few things i've learned in that time, but i want you to talk to your doctor about patient education for asthma. There are probably some good web sites out there too.
Right now while you are taking nebulizer treatments... use that time to read the information about your medications. Most deaths that occur with asthma are caused by over or undermedication.
Asthma attacks are scary, especially when they are new to you. i used to get so frightened that i would hyperventalate too. Try to exhale as much as you possibly can and then slowly breath deep through your nose. Staying calm helps. i find that sometimes it helps to wrap something like your bathrobe belt around your lower chest, and pull it in as you exhale to get as much as possible out. There are other methods and excersises that you should learn from your doctor.
If you aren't already keeping a chart of your breathing patterns, have your doctor set you up with that as well. This helps to see when there might be an attack on the way, and helps to know if you need to up medications etc. Simple as blowing in a tube and writting down a number.
Make sure you keep your inhalers clean, and use them exactly as directed. Always drink water, and then have some more, especially after you have used an inhaler, or done a nebulizer treatment. Also have some yogurt, not the all corn sweetner stuff, real yogurt {fruit in it's ok} helps to keep you from getting an infection in your throat from the inhalers.
You don't say what the cause is of your astma, but if you suspect it might be allergies i highly recomend going to a good allergist and getting tested. Allergy shots made a world of diference in my life, haven't been in the hospital once since, before my life was more in than out of the hospital.
The more you know the easier this will be to deal with, i know it's tough and so i'm sending a hug to you. Hope this info helps.
Wishing You Enough and Love
and good health too!

Answer 4

Have you been going to a pulmonary specialist? Have you tried Advair? It comes in three strengths 100/50, 250/50 and 500/50. Most likely you would need the 250 or the 500. The 100, 250 and 500 refers to the streoid dose. The 50 stays the same with all 3 strengths, and refers to the salmeterol, or Serevent which is the brand name. Is your Albuterol generic brand or Proventil HFA? Proventil HFA is the name brand, which uses a different propellant, and I prefer it when my asthma is worse than usual.

Prednisone is a last resort, it has horrible side effects. Stay away from asthma triggers. Smoke, animal hair, perfume or other strong odors, and extreme temperature and humidity levels can also trigger asthma.

Answer 5

Warm drinks. Sleep with your chest somewhat elevated (lying down makes it worse as I'm sure you've discovered). Plenty of fluids throughout the day. Your medications no doubt dehydrate you a bit and being well hydrated is important to your general health. A good vitamin supplement regimen is good too (multivitamin, C and a B complex at least).

Did you move to a new area? I can't seem to live in VA.... was in terrible shape there and struggled like you are describing. I'm much better in OK and other places.

Some people do better with dry air, and some people with humid air. Try to figure out how you are most comfortable and get a humidifier or dehumidifier depending on which makes you feel best.

Also, you can run an air purifier in case dust and other things in the air are making things worse for you.

I'm saying a prayer for you.... and that will help too. :o)

God Bless,

Sue

Answer 6

My brother is an asthmatic and after ten years his asthma has shown no sign of improving. He has been to several doctors but they didn't help much.

If you want a proven, all-natural way to cure your asthma, without having to pay for useless medications with harmful side-effects, then this is the most important page you'll ever read.

Answer 7

Asthma can develop at any age. Some people develop it as children, some people get it when they get old. It's a little odd for it to develop at your age - but maybe you had it in a mild form as a child (maybe diagnosed as bronchitis and only happened occasionally). It's very common for people to have asthma as a child, grow out of it for a while, then relapse in their thirties.

I'm sorry, but your asthma is probably here to stay. The way to tackle it, is to identify what is making you wheeze - because the chances are that something in your environment is making you wheeze.

Generally speaking, asthmatics don't wheeze because there is something wrong with their lungs. They just have over-reactive airways. In other words, YOU ARE WHEEZING BECAUSE YOU ARE BREATHING SOMETHING IN THAT MAKES YOU WHEEZE.

So what you need to do is identify what it is that you are breathing in. Things that set your asthma off are called "triggers". It may be one big thing, or lots of little things. It may be something you've lived with for years, that you have suddenly become sensitive to.

Don't underestimate anything. If I sleep in the same room as a cat, I'll end up in hospital. I don't have to be cuddling the cat, or even within reach of it. Once a cat got into my room and went to sleep on the mat. I was rushed to emergency! Other people are allergic to feathers, dust, pollens and other animals. Funnily enough, pollution isn't that big a trigger, except for smoke - from fires, cigarettes etc.

I assume you don't smoke. If you do, give it up now. If you live with a smoker or spend any time with people who smoke, you must insist they don't smoke anywhere near you. Being in the same room as a smoker will make your asthma much, much worse.

Keep a diary, noting down how your asthma feels and what you've been exposed to, and see if you can see a pattern. But do remember that you will react instantly to a trigger, but once you have reacted, your asthma can take a few days to settle down again.

If you suspect something of being a trigger, get rid of it for at least a week (it can take that long for your reaction to settle down). For instance, if you have a pet, get someone else to take care of it for a couple of weeks or send it to kennels. You'll also have to totally clean your house to get rid of the animal hair (wear a mask while doing that, or it will make you worse than ever).

It's important to have an independent way of assessing whether you are getting better or worse. For that, use your peak flow meter. Check it in the morning so you have a baseline, then check it whenever you think you've been exposed to something that could be a trigger. If it has affected you, your peak flow will drop.

Oh, and if you don't have a peak flow meter, change your asthma specialist immediately. A peak flow meter is your life saver. Any good asthma specialist should have given you a peak flow meter, showed you how to use it, and given you an asthma plan so you can tailor your medication based on how your peak flow is doing on any given day. If your specialist hasn't done that, he/she doesn't know their stuff. It's basic!

Answer 8

Ask your doc about Advair (the purple disc) it really helped me out alot!!! I was to the point I was going to ER at least 2-3 times a month. Singulair didn't help me but the combo of Advair, albuterol inhaler and breathing treatments helped immensely!!! Now I hardly need my rescue inhaler and I only need the Advair inhaler 2 times a day and breathing treatments only when I have flair-ups. Good luck!!!

Answer 9

Ok I have had asthma for a few years. And I have a few suggestions....

1. Stay from dust particles, get rid of any pets that you have( any thing with hair or feathers).
2.KNOW YOUR ASTHMA TRIGGERS!!!! Any thing that can trigger an asthma attack ( It varies from person to person).
3. Tell your doctor that your asthma is outta control.
4. Breathe slowly when out of breath.

Answer 10

bronchial asthma after pneumonia sounds logical, i'd also wager that they had you on antibiotics for a at the same time as to sparkling up the pneumonia. those weaken the immune gadget that is already week once you've hypersensitive reactions causing more desirable deterioration, there are procedures to boost your immune gadget yet that calls for a consultation with someone, I helped our suited associates son get off his inhaler thoroughly after some weeks, it would want to be performed.