Think I may have asthma?!
Question:
Think I may have asthma?
I belive that I may have asthma but at 42 will my gp listen to me
I dont smoke,never had but have a funny cough sound wheezy at times, cough seems to get worse around 7-8 pm
last night went to get washing of line and then, couldnt stop coughing
have had larangitious due to this cough at least 5 times since april when it started
when ever I have a cold or any illness the coughing starts
is it asthma, my son has had it diagnosied when he was 2 years old
Answers:
Asthma isn't like other breathing disorders. It doesn't care if you smoke or not but that is something that may "trigger" an attack. Some people are born with it others aquire it at a later stage in life. Sometines we "outgrow" it or our immune system fights it off for us (to be technical) and we think its gone, but once you have it you always have it. Its just dormant. If you have a wheezy cough and you feel tightness in your chest and a burn in your throat and this happens when say you are around something that you may be allergic to, you are in extremely cold air or extremely humid conditions, or you are running or other exercise then it might be asthma. The only true way to tell is called an asthma challenge test. They give you something to basically through you into an attack, they do a PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) and measure your lung volumes, then they give you a nebulizer treatment wait a little bit and repeat the PFT. The standard is if there is a 25% improvement when you take the nebulizer then you do have asthma. Lots of times doctors will say that from your symptoms you have it but thats a wild card and not a 100% true diagnosis. If your doctor won't take your seriously about the possibility of you having asthma call a Pulmonologist and see them they deal specificly with lung diseases.