S
sphinx29
Guest
I'm from a part of Australia with semi-humid summers and dry winters and had suffered mild asthma since a young age - mostly brought on by dust, cat hair, or exercise especially in cold dry weather. About six years ago I moved to Japan and lived in some of the big polluted cities over there. However, during my time there my asthma virtually disappeared - I don't even remeraber it being a big problem during the dry Japanese winters. The same story when I moved to dirty London for two years after Japan - no real asthma dramas, it was as if this pesky ailment had disappeared for good. I moved back to Australia in the middle of summer this year (January), and was not bothered by asthma at all to begin with. However, come April this year when the air becomes a lot drier and cooler I suddenly began suffering from chest congestion very deep in my lungs. Coincidentially or not, I also moved from an inner city apartment to a near new apartment complex in a leafy area in the burbs just before this time (late March).
When I first noticed it, it sounded really bad, a really loud crackling rattle when breathing out especially, but the strange thing was it was not hindering my ability to breathe. Yes, despite breathing that sounded like one of those Orcs from Lord of the Rings I felt no restriction at all and no need to take my reliever puffer (and even when I did it did not do anything). Also, the crackling was not so bad when sleeping or when waking up in the morning, but by 11am it became shockingly loud.
I went to the doctor about a month ago and was prescribed the preventer Pulmicort (budesonide). Within days of taking it the crackling diminished by about 60%, but that pesky 40% remains to this day. It is still the same situation in that the crackling is near to non-existent in the morning when I wake up and I have no troubles during the night, but by mid-morning it starts up again and lasts until I go to sleep at night. Also, often shallow breathing produces limited or no popping sounRAB, but when I exert fully and forcefully those final pockets of air deep at the bottom of my lungs make the loudest and thickest sounRAB of all. Another strange thing is that whenever I go jogging outside (in the cool dry air) or do any sort of physical exertion the crackling disappears and my breathing becomes perfectly clear temporarily! There's no sign of infection - the colour of the mucus when I manage to cough it up is a normal clear/very light yellow colour - that said, it is very difficult to cough up most of the time as the mucus seems very deep down. I also took a spirometry the other day at the docs, at mid-morning when my Orc-like breathing had started up again, but the results were *better* than average for my age/height/weight range in most areas - lung capacity of 117% predicted, FEV1 (the volume of air I can breathe out in the first second) of 108%, and a peak expiratory flow of 121%! The only thing that was down on normal was FEV1/FVC (amount exerted in first second vs total lung capacity) at 77.3% whereas it should be 82% (although looking at the graph I think this was caused by a last second final exertion at the end of the test).
Another problem I have, and probably the one that is worrying me most, is that I am going through a lengthy process to get hired for my "dream job". However the organisation has quite strict regulations for asthmatics. They allow "mild asthmatics" provided they are on low preventer medication no more than 400mgs (or whatever the measurement is) of Pulmicort a day and pass a bronchial provocation test (which I haven't yet taken). When I started on Pulmicort a month ago I was doing 800mgs a day, then increased to 1600mgs for two days at a pharmasist's recommendation, then 2 weeks ago brought it down to 400 a day when I realised what the limits were for my future hopeful employer who I was meeting for a minor medical (when I did meet with them last week they asked what dose I was on and I said 400 which they were fine with provided I took the provocation test at a later date).
So basically, I have this respiratory problem that is not necessarily hampering my ability to breath, but just sounRAB awful and occasionally causes me to cough or want to clear my throat. I'm also worried that the amount of mucus in there is creating a system that is ripe for infection come flu season. Expectorants don't seem to do much either. Doubling the dose of budesonide did nothing. As a last resort today I purchased a humidifier to see if recreating a humid Japan/England/Australian summer-like atmosphere while sleeping does anything. Other than that I'm completely perplexed. And as I said I'm also freaking about about the hiring process I am going through too. The doctor just says it's a "symptom of asthma" and to keep taking the same medication. I'd appreciate any ideas, or suggested questions I should ask my doc on next visit.
Many thanks.
EDIT: one final note, I did have a bout of bronchitis including sinus infection about 3 years ago. I went on a heavy dose of antibiotics and it cleared up pretty quickly. 5 months after this I had a minor cold with chest congestion. Again, antibiotics cleared it quickly. I haven't been sick since.
When I first noticed it, it sounded really bad, a really loud crackling rattle when breathing out especially, but the strange thing was it was not hindering my ability to breathe. Yes, despite breathing that sounded like one of those Orcs from Lord of the Rings I felt no restriction at all and no need to take my reliever puffer (and even when I did it did not do anything). Also, the crackling was not so bad when sleeping or when waking up in the morning, but by 11am it became shockingly loud.
I went to the doctor about a month ago and was prescribed the preventer Pulmicort (budesonide). Within days of taking it the crackling diminished by about 60%, but that pesky 40% remains to this day. It is still the same situation in that the crackling is near to non-existent in the morning when I wake up and I have no troubles during the night, but by mid-morning it starts up again and lasts until I go to sleep at night. Also, often shallow breathing produces limited or no popping sounRAB, but when I exert fully and forcefully those final pockets of air deep at the bottom of my lungs make the loudest and thickest sounRAB of all. Another strange thing is that whenever I go jogging outside (in the cool dry air) or do any sort of physical exertion the crackling disappears and my breathing becomes perfectly clear temporarily! There's no sign of infection - the colour of the mucus when I manage to cough it up is a normal clear/very light yellow colour - that said, it is very difficult to cough up most of the time as the mucus seems very deep down. I also took a spirometry the other day at the docs, at mid-morning when my Orc-like breathing had started up again, but the results were *better* than average for my age/height/weight range in most areas - lung capacity of 117% predicted, FEV1 (the volume of air I can breathe out in the first second) of 108%, and a peak expiratory flow of 121%! The only thing that was down on normal was FEV1/FVC (amount exerted in first second vs total lung capacity) at 77.3% whereas it should be 82% (although looking at the graph I think this was caused by a last second final exertion at the end of the test).
Another problem I have, and probably the one that is worrying me most, is that I am going through a lengthy process to get hired for my "dream job". However the organisation has quite strict regulations for asthmatics. They allow "mild asthmatics" provided they are on low preventer medication no more than 400mgs (or whatever the measurement is) of Pulmicort a day and pass a bronchial provocation test (which I haven't yet taken). When I started on Pulmicort a month ago I was doing 800mgs a day, then increased to 1600mgs for two days at a pharmasist's recommendation, then 2 weeks ago brought it down to 400 a day when I realised what the limits were for my future hopeful employer who I was meeting for a minor medical (when I did meet with them last week they asked what dose I was on and I said 400 which they were fine with provided I took the provocation test at a later date).
So basically, I have this respiratory problem that is not necessarily hampering my ability to breath, but just sounRAB awful and occasionally causes me to cough or want to clear my throat. I'm also worried that the amount of mucus in there is creating a system that is ripe for infection come flu season. Expectorants don't seem to do much either. Doubling the dose of budesonide did nothing. As a last resort today I purchased a humidifier to see if recreating a humid Japan/England/Australian summer-like atmosphere while sleeping does anything. Other than that I'm completely perplexed. And as I said I'm also freaking about about the hiring process I am going through too. The doctor just says it's a "symptom of asthma" and to keep taking the same medication. I'd appreciate any ideas, or suggested questions I should ask my doc on next visit.
Many thanks.
EDIT: one final note, I did have a bout of bronchitis including sinus infection about 3 years ago. I went on a heavy dose of antibiotics and it cleared up pretty quickly. 5 months after this I had a minor cold with chest congestion. Again, antibiotics cleared it quickly. I haven't been sick since.