flutterby
Fly away!
I started having this cough sometime last fall - I'm thinking October, but I'm not sure. It's been a while. I first saw my doctor about it in January and it had been going on for some time by then. It started as a sporadic thing - I would wake up coughing until I gagged, and couldn't catch my breath. I would shut myself in the bathroom with the shower on hot to fill the room with steam, like you do with a baby with croup. It happened every couple of weeks, then every week, then a few times a week...etc. Anyway, in January my doctor prescribed a rescue inhaler and sent me to an allergy and asthma specialist (I was also having the itching all over my body - no allergies were found and and after a couple of months the itching stopped as suddenly as it came on - doctor decided it was stress, which made sense). The specialist did a lung function test which was normal.
I've done two rounds of antibiotics and two rounds of steroids - although the second round of steroids was for other health issues. When on the steroids, I don't do the cough. Within a couple of days of stopping, it comes back with a vengeance. It's worse when I lie down, and with any kind of exertion (i.e., walking) in cold weather. Humidity seems to be an issue, too. It's to the point where I have to use the inhaler about 30 minutes before I go to bed, or as soon as I lie down I start to rattle and feel like I can't get a breath. I typically wake up after 5-6 hours, coughing, can't catch my breath, and have to use the inhaler again. The morning time is problematic, as I can't breathe in enough for the inhaler to be really effective. So, I do 2 puffs, wait for stuff to loosen up so my cough can be productive - and then I can take a deeper breath, then do 2 more puffs. Usually I'm good after that, although I do seem to get short of breath easier than I used to.
My doctor has prescribed....I'm not sure if it's a nebulizer or what. A company is supposed to bring it out to me and show me how to use it. She said it's a breathing treatment with humidity, and should work better than an inhaler since I can't breathe deeply enough in the morning for an inhaler to be really effective. She's also sending me to a pulmonologist. She thinks since I've done 2 rounds of antibiotics that it's probably not an infection like bronchitis, and I had a chest CT (unrelated - to check the thymus gland when they thought I had myasthenia gravis) in October that was "unremarkable". It did show some minor scarring in the lungs from a previous infection, but that was it.
So....after all that....what should I expect at a pulmonologist appointment? I asked her if she thought it could be Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and she said no since my lung function test was normal. She mentioned the possibility of sarcoidosis, which is why I think she's sending me to a pulmonologist.
I've done two rounds of antibiotics and two rounds of steroids - although the second round of steroids was for other health issues. When on the steroids, I don't do the cough. Within a couple of days of stopping, it comes back with a vengeance. It's worse when I lie down, and with any kind of exertion (i.e., walking) in cold weather. Humidity seems to be an issue, too. It's to the point where I have to use the inhaler about 30 minutes before I go to bed, or as soon as I lie down I start to rattle and feel like I can't get a breath. I typically wake up after 5-6 hours, coughing, can't catch my breath, and have to use the inhaler again. The morning time is problematic, as I can't breathe in enough for the inhaler to be really effective. So, I do 2 puffs, wait for stuff to loosen up so my cough can be productive - and then I can take a deeper breath, then do 2 more puffs. Usually I'm good after that, although I do seem to get short of breath easier than I used to.
My doctor has prescribed....I'm not sure if it's a nebulizer or what. A company is supposed to bring it out to me and show me how to use it. She said it's a breathing treatment with humidity, and should work better than an inhaler since I can't breathe deeply enough in the morning for an inhaler to be really effective. She's also sending me to a pulmonologist. She thinks since I've done 2 rounds of antibiotics that it's probably not an infection like bronchitis, and I had a chest CT (unrelated - to check the thymus gland when they thought I had myasthenia gravis) in October that was "unremarkable". It did show some minor scarring in the lungs from a previous infection, but that was it.
So....after all that....what should I expect at a pulmonologist appointment? I asked her if she thought it could be Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and she said no since my lung function test was normal. She mentioned the possibility of sarcoidosis, which is why I think she's sending me to a pulmonologist.