I know what it's like to be an "asthma nobody", I am sensitive to all cortisone meds, they give me migraine, debiliatating 3 day migraines.......and I just don't get migraine at all when I am not on the meds. But I am a nobody, as it is an unreported side effect, so every time I see a different doctor, I have to explain.
If it works for you, wonderful. Theophylline didn't like me at all
Has anyone tried the Buteyko method?
I get migraines alot when I'm taking my inhalers and hayfever meds but the doctors have told me that its the hayfever that causes the migraines not the meds.
I wonder whether it is the meds.
I've had asthma since childhood. Right now I'm on Advair, Theodur, and Albuterol when needed. Usually I have no problem exercising unless it's very cold.
The thing that is hardest is when I get the cold that everyone else has, it turns into a two-week bout of pneumonia and lays me out for a while. People think I'm neurotic about avoiding people with colds but it's such a big deal to get one---and working in a hospital gives me more exposure. For some reason, patients in hospitals think it's OK to cough all over health care workers and then when their visitors come, they cover their mouths when they cough! Like we're immune...go figure!
I was talking to my allergist at my semi-annual checkup this week. Commented that sometimes, even though I take my Albuterol before I start exercising, when I'm working hard on a machine, I go a little overboard, and can't seem to get myself out of status asthmaticus ( I call it the bear) for a day or more.
She said that, back in the 70s when she was in her residency, she had a few young athletes as patients, who would be fine during practice, but would put out that extra effort during the game, and would have the same problem.
She said that those patients did very well when they took Intal (chromilin sulfate) before the game. And gave me a sample to try.
She says she knows that it's a little old-fashioned now, but if it fills in in certain situations, hey...
I have it too.... dx at 19 but I think I had it my whole life. Childhood was filled with bronchitis. I just finished a course of steriods as I had a major flare up having my floors re-done. I was stupid and stayed home while it was being done and slept in the house with the fumes... I will never do that again!
If You Have The Correct Treatment For Asthma It Usually Can Be Controlled Enough So That You Can Do Some Exercise. You Should Not Have To Use Your Inhaler Often If You Are Under A Doctor's Care.if You Do You Should Tell The Doctor And Ask For New Medications. For A Few Years A Doctor Treated Me Without The Proper Meds. I Went To Someone Else And It Was Wonderful. I Hardly Ever Get An Attack Now. Of Course,i Cannot Do As Much As A "normal" Person,but I Am Much Much Better And Very Grateful. My Big Problem Is Arthritis. I Do Not Feel Like Exercising When It Causes So Much Pain.
I have had it since my early teens (now late 30's), but until the last few years it had always been fairly well under control. Over the past few years I have found myself struggling more and more with everyday things - like perfume, cleaning fluids, basically anything with a strong smell was just about killing me off. I was on so many doses of oral steroids last year it wasn't funny.
I had been on the same medication for about 15 years, and my doc wasn't really very forthcoming with changing it. I ended up in ER just before christmas last year, and ended up staying in for a week, it was really quite scary.
Anyway, before I had gone in, I had researched different asthma meds - so when the chest physician came to see me, I suggested a change. He put me from becotide to flixotide, and also added singulair (which I had researched). The long and short of it is that, this year, I have barely taken my ventolin, when before I was using it almost 8 times daily. The new drugs have changed my life this year, its hard to explain to people who have never suffered just how fabulous it is to be in the vicinity of someone wearing strong perfume without having to keel over!
The down side is that I have put on about 25 pounds since I was in hospital. I could blame the high doses of oral steroids I was on (and I DO blame them to most people!) - but in reality, I have just plain overeaten. I'm sure you can all sympathise how it feels when your asthma is bad, eating isn't a big priority... so since I have been well, I have been making up for lost time!
So what happens? The weight goes on, and all of a sudden as the weather gets cooler, yours truly is starting to struggle again! Hence the big diet and fitness regime starting today!!
Phew, that was long! Hope you don't mind - but it is nice to get that off my chest to people who will understand!
Location: Danville, CA, USA -- east of San Francisco
Posts: 50
Here's one more
Greetings:
Newbie here, hoping to resurrect this thread because I'm one of you.
One of my biggest obstacles in losing weight is that I don't really like to exercise. I have had periods of being fit in the past. But until I get to a certain level of fitness, exercise is uncomfortable, as in overtiring at even minimal levels. And the older I get, the longer it takes me to get to that level where workouts feel good. It's doubly hard right now because I'm in the middle of my busy season. There's always more work. (I'm a court reporter, and there's a shortage of us where I live. Plus my husband is out of work at the moment -- this is not all bad, actually, just a long story which I will explain elsewhere -- so I feel pressed to work as much as I can.) My slow Winter Solstice season is coming up, and I won't be going out to any jobs Thanksgiving week because my steno machine will be in service. So I have lots of resolutions. Dazzlingly virtuous as they are, they don't burn calories or build cardio fitness, both of which can only help the asthma (sigh).
Not sure what I'm going to do about this one, but I have to do something.
Greetings:
Newbie here, hoping to resurrect this thread because I'm one of you.
Count me in among the wheezers.
Cathryn, I used to hate to exercise, too - I mean REALLY hate it - because it has always been an effort for me. Asthma sure didn't make it any easier, but I have it very well-controlled now - and I actually think the exercise might be helping. I wouldn't know the physiology behind it... but all I know is that I feel a whole lot better than I did before I started working out.
I had the realization of having to be proactive to lose this extra weight I'm lugging around with me, and I knew that the only way I was going to do it was to start exercising again because at this age, dieting alone doesn't cut it anymore. I had to start very slow, my first few sessions of cardio being only 5 minutes at a time... but with effort and determination, I'm now up to a solid 30 minutes of cardio four days a week.
In my own hectic life (we are all so BUSY!!), my exercise time is my "me time," where I only focus on me, my body and my well-being. I bit the bullet and joined a gym, which helped... and when I get in a really good workout and I meet all my goals I set for myself, I relax in the steam room or the sauna afterwards as a treat. It feels really good! Maybe you could consider something like that for yourself... take a brisk 15-minute walk, and then afterwards reward yourself with a nice, hot bath, complete with candles and maybe a glass of wine..?
Oh, and BTW Cathryn - I'm a legal assistant, and can I just say how much I admire court reporters? You guys put up with a lot of crap!
Take it easy on yourself... even if you just make one tiny change a week, all those tiny changes will add up to big changes over the long-term.
Location: Danville, CA, USA -- east of San Francisco
Posts: 50
Mutual admiration (g)
Greetings:
I also have a lot of admiration for legal assistants. I see them work miracles all the time. You folks really have to know a lot, be extremely flexible, and also have to behave with great discretion in your jobs.
Yeah; I just have to make it happen. I took one step already which might be a bit controversial in these parts: I ended my gym membership. As you clearly understand, my work is very high-pressure. Our local gyms (we have two Bally branches) are really very good in lots of ways, but they're total sensory overload: constant TVs going on, loud music, noise, bright lights, etc. I never thought twice about this until this week when I started to think about why I was so resistant to exercise. What I want when I'm not working (or playing music; I play Celtic fiddle) is quiet. I like to walk, and I have an Air-Dyne (a kind of exercise bike which has movable arms). My husband suggested I start biking again and is fixing up my bike for me.
Today I woke up with the beginnings of a cold, always a disaster for us wheezer, so it's not the day to try out your excellent reward suggestion. I am just working at home on a pile of transcripts and swilling tincture of echinacea. I have had some very good results with this remedy if I get it started before the cold is really underway.
Cathryn - hope your cold did not get the best of you and that the echinacea worked. I take echinacea supplements from December thru March every year, so I can relate! Actually, I can relate with you on a lot of levels, it seems - I'm a musician as well as a legal assistant. We have much in common.
I can definitely see why you quit your gym membership. All that extraneous stuff can be extremely distracting, if not nerve-wracking! Thankfully, the gym I attend has no t.v.'s and barely even plays the radio, and so I can really get into my own little zone.
Hopefully your bike can be fixed up - that's terrific exercise, especially if it's got the arm thingees for cross-training. The more of your body that moves all at once, the better workout you'll get.
If you're looking to get some great motivation, there is an absolutely terrific bunch of ladies in the "Chicks Up for a Challenge" forum who are currently involved in the Thanksgiving Challenge (we have weekly chat threads). It's not too late to chime in with us... and we'll probably be starting a New Year's Challenge when this one is through. It's a very nurturing, supportive and motivated group of girls. Every victory - small or large - is celebrated. I hope you come check it out!
Location: Danville, CA, USA -- east of San Francisco
Posts: 50
Progress
Thanks for your kind reply, Rowdybliss.
Yes, the echinacea did it again! I work best with the tincture in some water four times a day. But I have to get at it the instant I suspect I'm coming down with one. With me, it's stuffiness and a certain heat in the back of the throat; I suspect others are different. Interesting that the echinacea-tinted water doesn't taste at all good to me unless I really need it. A tax-accountant friend of mine does exactly what you do, takes echinacea from the first of the year through the end of April, his busy season. It's worked for him for years.
Thanks for the invite to the thread. I will be checking it out. I'm on a very intense job this week where they want daily copy -- that means I try to make a record while not getting caught in crossfire, come home, and work a couple of hours on a transcript which I email. It's a little mad, but I deliberately overbooked this week; I'm taking my steno machine into the steno machine spa next week, and I can be productive by editing transcripts.
I used to attend a gym like the one you go to, and I miss it! (We moved, so I can't return.) Seems like a lot of us want to be in our own space when we exercise. I know someone who won't join a gym for exactly that reason. I understand where they're coming from. They want to create a high-energy, motivating atmosphere -- it's really quite a good gym -- which works for many. But for me, it's shudderworthy.
Something about myself I would like to widely announce is that please, take no offense if you don't hear from me for a few days. It is very common for me to disappear into a job like the one I'm doing now. And in those cases, the silence doesn't mean anything's wrong; in fact, I'm probably waiting until I have the time and energy to respond with a minimal amount of thoughtfulness.
I met my Thanksgiving challenge a little early, I'm happy to say! Maybe I can eke out another pound before then.
Well I am excited this thread came back to life! Add me to the list of wheezers! I've been since childhood as well....my mom would always tell me I had pneumonia as a baby, was on a vent for a week and have had problems ever since. One of my favorite stories to tell was that when I was young, I didn't want to tell my parents that I couldn't breathe, so I would just lay in bed late at night, wheezing and stroking my kitty cat, begging the cat to make me all better. Yep you guessed it, I was allergic to the cat! LOL!
I take Serevent and Flovent and carry around my Albuterol "just in case", and I was just saying on another thread that I'd been out of the serevent and flovent for a week or so and it is affecting my workout! Like it grips my chest and won't let go. So I've felt like I haven't been kicking it up like I should be. I got them refilled last night BTW.
I too, feel like I'm in good shape, can do my workout at the gym 90 min three times a week and still get short of breath going up steps!! I thought I was nuts! And I think it's all in my head but if I wake up in the middle of the night, I hit my inhaler and it helps me get back to sleep. Sometimes I hit it even if I don't feel short of breath, it just seems like a comfort thing. I remember once my doctor telling my parents he wondered if I was becomming "addicted" to my rescue inhaler. Who knows?
Also I used to panic if I thought for a minute that I lost my inhaler, or left it at home. Now, I have better control and can leave it at my bedside and not even worry about it. Nice to meet the rest of you though!
Location: Danville, CA, USA -- east of San Francisco
Posts: 50
Yup, we're here, we're asthmatic...
Greetings NurseMichelle:
Asthma medication, it's a beautiful thing. I use QVar twice daily and have Albuterol for emergencies. The big job I was on turned out to be just awful. I usually have excellent luck with attorneys I work with, but not this time (sigh). They weren't what you'd call class acts, and they all hated each other. They had to call a judge twice because they couldn't settle minor points of procedure. I swear, I once saw two seven-year-olds resolve conflict better than these guys. Anyway, it was not fun. My point here is that I used my Albuterol during the last couple of days of the depo. I figured I was probably breathing too shallowly because it was so stressful, and that wasn't helping my objectivity. (When things get awful in depos, one goal of mine is to not hook into the drama and stay objective.) I haven't used Albuterol that way before, but I think it might have helped.
It makes so much sense that asthma meds give you comfort. Asthma is SCARY! Knowing that if you don't consciously kick-start your own breathing, you won't do is awful! Our meds keep us away from having to have that experience. If you're dependent -- well, no judgments here.
I adore my cats and I'm in complete and very well-entrenched denial about any possible effect they may have on my asthma.
