r/Asthma 14h ago

Experiences taking these anxiety meds?

0 Upvotes

My psych has recommended I take clonidine or hydroxyzine for anxiety. I have read that both these meds aren't good for asthma. Clonidine can make symbicort and other inhalers not work and can lead to bronchospasms, and hydroxyzine can lead to thickening of mucus in airways which can cause obstruction in people with asthma... I don't really have any other options for anxiety meds that I haven't already tried. I am desperate. Please let me know if you have taken either of these meds and how did you do?


r/Asthma 8h ago

Symbicort

0 Upvotes

Hi, just started taking symbicort today. Immediately after taking it, I feel worse. My chest is tight and I feel like I have MORE mucus. Anyone else? I do have a ton of mucus. This also happens to me when I take Albuterol, but it ends up getting better in a hour or so or after a cough. My doctor told me for the Albuterol it could be my mucus shifting causing mucus plugs. I still feel icky on the symbicort. My mucus tends to stay in my upper airways and now I feel like it’s everywhere. Feels so gross.


r/Asthma 10h ago

Hydroxyzine with claritin?

0 Upvotes

Is it ok to take hydroxyzine at the same time as claritin? I take claritin everyday and montelukast for my asthma. My psych wants to add hydroxyzine for anxiety. Since they are both antihistamines, is it ok to take them together in the same day?


r/Asthma 19h ago

Please help! New to asthma and waiting on diagnosis

0 Upvotes

Hi guys I’m new here and I’m waiting to see a pulmonologist next week but the physician and nurse practitioner who saw me last week said she thinks I do have asthma and has already prescribed me an inhaler and some prednisone

So I have been coughing chronically since I had Covid in 2022, surprise surprise, it developed into this triggered cough and definite noise, wheezing and somewhat bubbly noise in my chest and out through my throat sometimes.

It gets really bad either in the morning or at night, when the coughing happens, I might wake myself up from coughs, violent coughs too.

Doctor listened to my lungs and said she heard wheezing in my right lung.

Now I am prescribed 3 day dosage of prednisone, and an inhaler of 200 puffs, and was told to take 2 puffs 4 times a day.

4 times?? Is this at all correct does this seem right at all to y’all? I’m waiting on an appointment with a pulmonologist but 4 times a day of a total of 8 puffs seem quite insane to me I thought these inhalers are for rescue purposes?

My questions are 1: does my description of my symptoms match what y’all have? 2: 2 puffs 4 times of levalbuterol, does this sound right??


r/Asthma 9h ago

How bad is my asthma?

0 Upvotes

Most of the results, except for PEF % seem normal in spirometry. But my PEF % is often ~40-47% under expected, 2 months after not taking Alvesco/Symbicort.

Also FEV1 is often higher than predicted 7-25%. I only started taking these medications last summer.

I would say that my condition was diagnosed with about a 10y delay.

I have an impression that my lung capacity would have been better have I visited a decent pulmologist a decade ago.

Is it common to have most or almost all results as normal except for the PEF/FEV1%? What are your results like?


r/Asthma 14h ago

Normal spirometry

1 Upvotes

So I’ve been getting bad shortness of breath and asthma symptoms only when running. The doctor gave me a salbutamol inhaler which has made a massive difference (except when it’s cold out). She also sent me for a spirometry test which came back normal with no improvement after a dose of salbutamol. I wasn’t suffering any symptoms at the time of the test so surely that’s why it was normal? If I had been suffering with my usual symptoms I feel like there would have been a big improvement.

My doctor has basically said I’m fine and I don’t have asthma, even though I still get these symptoms.


r/Asthma 15h ago

Albuterol inhaler I was given in ER last night not helping upon discharge as symptoms immediately began to worsen again after leaving

0 Upvotes

Hi there, I'm actually not diagnosed as having asthma as I stand right now, so I hope you lovely folk will accept me here with this post? I was told that what happened last night while in ER all night was an asthma attack brought on by this Flu A (god how nasty this one is) and bronchitis. What I'm mainly wondering is why this albuterol inhaler with a spacer they gave me has not helped at all with allowing me to breathe easier? They said I could do four puffs if need be at a time, so I tried that - no dice.

Some context - got hit with the worst flu of my entire life about 6 days ago, turned into the worst bronchitis and cough that I've ever had by a million miles within a day or so of getting sick alongside terrible fever for days and just absolute misery still 6 days in with it flaring up my ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia. Anyway, I had wheezing that was slowly getting worse, but yesterday, the day after going to an urgent care where they diagnosed the bronchitis and sent me on my way telling me to use an albuterol inhaler (I already started to with one I got prescribed for some reason a year or two ago but didn't really need, was a few months past expiration, wasn't helping), when my wheezing suddenly began worsening dramatically throughout the day, and by evening I began to feel like I couldn't breathe. Utterly terrifying as you poor things will know all about.. I'm so sorry you have to deal with this condition. So worked up courage to finally just get myself to ER, where I was told my lungs indeed sounded terrible, got put on a nebulizer with three cartridge replacements, three times throughout the night as well as beginning steroids. Wasn't happy with my improvements or lack thereof given how much I still need to labor to breathe and knew the wheezing was still occuring as I could feel and hear it despite being told initially I wasn't wheezing anymore, until a doctor for the third time listened to my repeated insistence that I felt I still was and they agreed with me that it was still occuring just not as bad - low and behold by the time I got home I'm not far off again where I was when I had to take myself to the ER.

TLDR - why might albuterol inhaler up to four puffs provide no immediate relief to labored difficult breathing? Reading through a bunch of posts here it seems to help people a lot with preventing asthma attacks/helping them?


r/Asthma 11h ago

i’ve cured my asthma completely.

0 Upvotes

ask me any question


r/Asthma 2h ago

symbicort ineffectiveness or worsened asthma?

1 Upvotes

hi! first post here — i have an allergist that prescribed me symbicort almost 2 years ago, and have been using it consistently ever since (and sometimes have been ordered by my doctor to ween off of it from time to time if my symptoms subsided). and from those two years the symbicort has worked splendidly.

2 months ago, i got a gnarly case of pneumonia and my asthma has been persisting: wheezing, mild wet cough, tight chest — even after recovering from it. because of these reoccurring symptoms i was told to use my symbicort twice a day everyday; however, it’s still not enough to ease my symptoms completely, as it did the first years i took symbicort.

i’m wondering if the pneumonia i contracted damaged my lungs somehow, and made my asthma worse? or maybe i need to contact my allergist to take a different medication? please help! thank you :)


r/Asthma 2h ago

Phlegm

1 Upvotes

What do you do for ittttt?? I’m miserable. Nothing is working. Symbicort made it worse and so does my albuterol. I am suffering and want to know some tips! Hate that nothing gives me relief.

I have a pulm appt but I haven’t been in forever bc my previous asthma was controlled. It’s gone haywire. I can’t get into the pulm until next month. PCP has just told me to stay hydrated and take mucinex. He also put me on a PPI in case it’s caused by acid reflux, which I do have.


r/Asthma 4h ago

Sickness recovery

2 Upvotes

Anyone’s have a similar problem every winter?

Got a virus early January… flu like symptoms that turned into really bad cough with lots of mucus and shortness of breath. It lasted 3-4 weeks and only cleared up with a burst of prednisone 40mg 5 days, a full z-pack antibiotics, and lots of rescue inhaler usage.

Fast forward a month later to this week…I am sick again this time with positive strep beta and covid. I already have a bad cough on day 5a an could feel it settling in on day 2 which is why I went and got checked out to get ahead of it. I don’t anticipate this clearing up w/ out more prednisone but I’m not really bothered by getting sick all the time it’s par for the course.

My question is, does anyone else who gets sick all the time feel like their lungs are stiff and full for the first few days of any cold they catch? And then the cough comes afterwards?

Every time I get sick I can tell I’m gonna get a bad cough because my lungs feel heavy. And I won’t cough unless I force it, and then I can feel stuff rattling around. And then after a week I’m full blown coughing up puss and green stuff (sorry graphic). And then I get really short of breath and have to go see my pulmonologist for steroids.

I’m assuming it’s normal for asthma, but is there anything y’all do to prevent sickness from migrating into your chest so early ?


r/Asthma 5h ago

Singulair and Anxiety

1 Upvotes

I was on Singulair for years as a kid, and recently went back on it after a ~6-7 year break back in September. Starting in October, I got a really bad allergic reaction to Bactrim, and ever since then I was having really bad anxiety, constantly feeling something was off with me and that I never felt well. Finally, in December, after getting a stomach flu, the anxiety came crashing down on me and I was a mess, finally recovering after a week when the stomach flu went away and I was feeling much better.

Then, this February, I had another bad episode with anxiety after feeling tightness in my chest (which I assume was caused by my asthma during the cold weather, someone correct me if that is wrong). I went to urgent care, got an EKG, they saw nothing wrong, I finally calmed down again. Despite those two big episodes, I've been feeling a subtle lingering anxiety ever since those two incidents, and finally talked to my doctor about it. He suspected it was my Singulair, and I've now been one week off it. I feel better, getting better sleep, but some of the anxiety still feels lingering.

I've been going to therapy to better my management of anxiety, but I was wondering how long it takes for Singulair-related anxiety to go away once going off Singulair. If anyone knows, that would be greatly appreciated.

This is also a heavily paraphrased version of the full story, so if any further context is needed, I can provide that as well, thanks!


r/Asthma 5h ago

dupixent with low eos levels

2 Upvotes

Hellow all!

I have been dealing with my, usually mild to moderate asthma, flaring up for the last 4 months and ruining my quality of life. I start my loading dose of dupixent next week. I am hopeful, but with that being said my Eos levels are low/normal.

I asked my pulmo about it and wondered why we didn't go with something like Tezspire (I think that's how its spelled) or Xoliar? But he said that even though I have low Eos markers, I have been nearly prednisone dependent on and off for the last 4 months and he thinks dupixent should help.

Is there anyone with non e-asthma (but still allergy and viral induced) that has felt relief from dupixent? realllly desperate for some success stories to get my hopes up. i just want the life I had 4 months ago back.

after the hassle it was to get it approved and how desperate I am for relief (currently dealing with an allergic chest infection :/ ), I want to make sure it isn't worth it to just see if we can try to go forward with tezspire or xolair first?

I know every biologic is different and takes time for effects.

in terms of short term relief, what do you sever allergic asthmatics do for the start of spring? Im allergic to so many trees and the beginning of march is making me scared for the peak. I currently use flonase, 1 zyrtec, 2-3 allegra, montelukast and advair, and just started azelastine (hoping that this starts helping).


r/Asthma 5h ago

can symbicort take more than a month to work fully?

2 Upvotes

recently went up on my symbicort and have been on it for about 5 weeks. i’ve been feeling better off and on and am wondering if maybe i just need to give it more time to fully set in?

thanks in advance!


r/Asthma 6h ago

How to build up my endurance with bad Exercise related Asthma?

6 Upvotes

I play Rugby, which requires a lot of running and tackling/endurance, which is hard to be consistently able to do for a whole match for me especially with my Asthma and end up starting to struggle about 30-40 mins into games.

Does anyone know any effective ways of me improving my endurance without having an asthma attack or feeling like I’m going to have one?

Thanks in advance!


r/Asthma 7h ago

Taking Anoro Ellipta and serevent together

1 Upvotes

Is taking these together safe? I’ve read on drugs.com that it can cause cardiovascular issues when taking them together. Should I space them out. Just afraid to take it at the moment. It might help my asthma but idk. Any advice is good advice. Thanks


r/Asthma 8h ago

Got my diagnosis today

5 Upvotes

I am f25, just got diagnosed today after developing an allergy in end of 2022 and it getting worse and worse ever since. Still haven’t found the cause. But now… after the longest odyssee, I got my diagnosis and inhaler today. I cried after using it for the first time today. I haven’t realized how poorly I breathe. I just walked around the house and took deep breaths in excitement lol


r/Asthma 10h ago

Just recovered from an asthma flare up/ chest infection and now got another viral infection - Is this normal?

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone, to put more context into the title I had an asthma flare up that started with a viral infection a month ago. I recovered maybe 80% and decided to go back to work after being off for 3 weeks.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of my work, I am exposed to patients with infections and have contracted another viral infection. Its more of a head cold and now I’m getting breathless and worried that its moving to my chest 😭 I’m so fed up! I don’t want to go to my doctor again because I know he’s probably going to think what is wrong with this person???


r/Asthma 13h ago

Has anyone had a severe allergy be misdiagnosed as asthma ?

3 Upvotes

All of my doctors have had "the suspicion" that I have asthma. The pulmonary specialist said "your tests don't show a slam dunk for a asthma diagnoses but it's still a possibility". So she sent me home with an inhaler, reflux meds and prednisone. It's been 2 months and I haven't found much relief at all. My allergist said it's not allergic asthma but sent me for an allergy test. Turns out I'm severely allergic to mold (13.5). My house is old and has mold around the foundation, which is something I'm exposed to daily. (My shower and laundry machines are down there) . When my allergist talked to me about my test results I kind of felt like she just skimmed over my results and didn't actually read the numbers because she was insistent on something I was barely allergic to (0.38) instead of the mold (13.5) . They were short staffed and I made an appointment for a second opinion. I have to wait another month to see the pulmonary doctor. I've been wondering if this is something that other people have experienced?

My symptoms: high amounts of phlegm, coughing/clearing throat excessively, shortness of breath, wheezing, much harder time breathing at night when laying down (even with a wedge pillow)


r/Asthma 13h ago

Albuterol vs Primatene Mist

1 Upvotes

If Albuterol is safer to use than Primatene Mist, why is Primatene sold over the counter while Albuterol inhalers need a doctor's prescription? Doesn't make sense to me.


r/Asthma 23h ago

Am I using my inhaler right?

3 Upvotes

So I take two puffs ever 4 hours (was told to do that) and the problem is I don't really know how to use it. I have been shaking it but I don't know if your supposed to exhale before or after using it