spoke too soon...another flare

Well, spoke to soon. This last flare was a result of a cold. I thought I was doing good, the cold had come and gone..but the asthma was only just beginning!! I tried to manage my asthma symptoms with nebs as needed and managed to keep my peak flows in my green zone per my new regimen with my new doctor. I was doing ok, even thought myself this was a very, very minor cold, I have managed to dodge the bullet...this is the summer weather, which for me is better with my asthma. Well, Sunday night, went to bed and actually woke up Monday morning (because of my asthma) coughing continuously, chest hurting really bad and my lungs tightening up everywhere. I was even suprised myself when I took my peak flows and my numbers were hovering around upper 50 to 60% personal best, but my FEV 1 numbers were showing 58% obstruction...uh oh...not so good. Immediately did a neb treatment and it helped open me up some...called the doctors office when they opened left message. Heard back and started prednisone I have at home and less than an hour later, my numbers were doing much better at least in the yellow zone and not trying to go to the red zone, which is where I was headed earlier in the morning. Thankfully I was able to avoid an ER trip, because I know that's where I would have been heading had I ignored my body and my symptoms. A few days later, and I'm doing much better. Cough still there, but at least it's productive and I'm down to just a nebs every 6 hours and tapering down the prednisone. Overall feeling much better.....or is it just the steroids and meds giving me all this energy :).

Asthma doing better

Well, since I last posted my asthma is doing better. I had switched doctors about a month ago and he ordered a PFT test for me. It had been several years since my last one. I was expecting it to be much worse, but surprisingly, I was doing awesome. I think in part because he had increased my maintenance dose of Symbicort and I had noticed my breathing doing better just from that. My FEV1 was 78% premedication and 84% post. So normal breathing. It only showed that I had mild obstruction and the pulmonologist was very glad to see that. I think if it had showed moderate or severe, despite being on high dose ICS, he would have added a small dose of prednisone to my daily regimen...at least that's my guess. He even said that he thought my numbers would have been a lot worse. The only thing that was below normal was my FEF 25-75% numbers which were 34%. He basically told me that it confirmed that I had some obstruction going on, but that was about it...not to worry about those numbers too much. My gas exchange was great and my lung volumes were near normal...so he said with all that considered, I was doing great!! Anyway, some good news to report. Here's to starting off a new "school year" with great breathing. My 3 year old starts preschool for the first time next Tuesday. Yeah, she's so excited and I am for her as well....she needs friends to play with.