I never cough..how can I have asthma?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lunaropal
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Lunaropal

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14 months ago I was sitting in a chair when I suddenly started feeling chest pain...made worse when I breathed in. The only thing that helped a little was leaning forward. For three days I went thru hell when I laid down for bed. Lots of chest pain, and panting to breath..eventually it would ease and I could sleep. Overall I felt sick for about two weeks, especially when I breathed in. Then I was back to my old self. I had three of these episodes like this over seven months.
This past october I had another episode that just wouldn't go away. It was acute with the pain laying down for a few days then eased up to a constant chest pain..worse on my right, with shortness of breath. I didn't want to talk, because it took too much effort. My doctor was very concerned, I was checked for an aneurym, endocardities, etc. Nothing showed except my "sed rate" was going progressively higher over the months. He put me on oral steroiRAB. I felt so much better, but only on the high dose. He also tried Prevacid thinking of GERD. I had the most mind nurabing indigestion of my life, just horrible! So I stopped that and took prilosec, but overall was no better. Finally I was sent to a pulmonologist where I had a methacholine challenge test which I failed. She placed me on Advair 500/50 and Wow in a few days I felt like myself again!
My doctor has had me lower the dose to the 250/50, but the symtoms come back, so back to the 500. I never-ever cough or seemingly have any triggers. I require no med other than the Advair. Of course I'm wondering if I really have asthma. My husband and two of my sons have asthma, I'm extremely familiar with it! My symtoms are nothing like they have. My only difference is I had TB as a child and was diagnosed with sarcoid years ago. My x-rays & MRI show no signs of that now however.
I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
 
There is nothing so frustrating as people who assume that you ONLY have asthma if you wheeze or cough! There is a list a mile long of the various asthma symptoms. It mimicks GERD and GERD mimics it is just one. If you failed the test and the Advair works - guess what? It's asthma. Please don't pigeon hole yourself or others. Everyone is different. I don't wheeze and I rarely cough. I just have a shortness of breath when I have an attack.
 
Sorry if you thought I was trying to pigeon hole you or anyone else. I try hard not to make assumtions about others and do understand everyone is different. I was only relating my own experiences and thoughts about myself. The only type of asthma I've ever been around, or heard of before, involved lots of coughing, wheezing, etc. I've since read online about different kinRAB of asthma, but I thought someone here might have some real constructive information about not coughing.
 
I certainly did not mean to offend you. But you can go back thru the postings on this board and read the same question you posed but substitute "wheeze" or whatever for "cough." There is a stereotype out there and it is very misleading. I hate that TV ad with the fish flopping around and the little boy talking about wheezing with his asthma.

You are questioning your dx simply because you don't have the symptoms YOU heard about for asthma. You are shortchanging yourself. If you research the list of symptoms for asthma, you may find you had it long before it was actually diagnosed.
 
I really do appreciate what you're saying. One of my own doubts concerning the asthma was I felt it was simply "there" one day, but of course you're right that I may have had other symtoms long before. One of the reasons I wrote such a long posting was because I had two Doctors preplexed by my symptoms..they both thought it was my heart. Although testing showed it wasn't it put a lot of worry and doubt in my own mind. Then the pulmo Doc was so surprised when I failed the challenge. I still feel bewildered by it all! The Pulmo Doc did tell me asthma is a complex condition with many variations. I'm learning how true that really is.
Thank you for replying to my posting Titchou!
 
Not a problem. At least now you have a dx and the meRAB are taking care of it. That's the main thing!
 
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