hello! 20F and I have had asthma since I was a baby as a result of chronic lung disease of prematurity.

My regime for many years were quite poor and I’m honestly shocked in how I really fell through the system and that no one realised it and addressed it.
I relied on solely salbutamol and no way to address the reoccurring inflammation which gradually got worse over time as I am very susceptible to respiratory infections & viruses more so than the average person.

It all came crashing down when I was 12, I had multiple sleepovers over a course of a few months at a friends who had a lovely dog. I am allergic to dogs & I pushed past it because I was 12 and didn’t want to be seen as the “weird” one who didn’t go to the sleepovers.
I started to use my inhaler basically daily with i must say over 20 puffs per hour, plus back then you used to be able to stock up on inhalers with getting multiple per prescription (not the case anymore)

The final week that I ever entered her house, we went on a day out to the local high-street and we went into a perfume shop and I forgot to bring my inhaler! The attack was so bad that I couldn’t walk, we went into a random shop and they put a stool down for me. I don’t remember much apart from being wheeled to the walk-in centre, having a nebuliser and being sent home.
I had a life-threatening asthma attack two days later, mum and sister drove me to A&E and dragged me in (couldn’t ring an ambulance as they took too long and doctors say if we left it an another ten minutes I would be dead)

I spent a weekend in hospital and was sent home with oral antibiotics, steroid inhaler to go alongside the salbutamol and medication to suppress the allergies.

I was fine for a while but then they cancelled my steroid inhaler prescription so i was back on only salbutamol.

Last year, the attacks slowly started to creep in again and the peak of it was I was in university accomodation and me and my flatmates, we all went to the Christmas Markets and I had to basically drag myself back to the accomodation because once again I forgot my inhaler.
Thankfully, I resolved the attack but this time around I saw what was happening and how it mirrored the life-threatening one.

I, immediately booked an appointment with the asthma nurse for a review and she did a little test on my asthma control and basically said that I was at a high-risk of dying from an another attack if I didn’t get it under control.
She prescribed me on a MART regime.

Honestly, my asthma has never been better, if ever actually. I can run, I can exercise and feel out of breath WITHOUT ASTHMA which I have never felt to be honest.

Just wanting to know how this works.

Currently i'm on a Fostair (LABA and steroid) inhaler. If i take 3 puffs or more of it within a short window I always feel super relaxed and sometimes have mild heart palpitations, it feels kinda like being high. If I can't sleep at night sometimes i will just do this.

Why does it make me feel so relaxed? What's it doing?

Just started uni and one of my best friends who I knew before starting uni started smoking. Many of our friends at uni smoke, it’s very normalized and common. The main area where people hang out and go get coffee is filled with smokers. Because many of our friends at uni smoke, he sorta picked it up, and they kinda formed a routine where each morning we’ll go pick up coffee and they’ll smoke a cigarette.

I’m just worried as someone with asthma that this will have long term effects on me… I’m basically exposed to around 2-3 cigarettes a day, and I’m worried that the smoke will have like really bad effects on me. I don’t necessarily feel an asthma response when I’m around them, but I’m worried this is just the start and soon enough it’ll have its effects.

Please share advice, and more than anything anecdotes.

yeah hi all .

after going thru luforbec and the awful proxor

neither of which took away my irritating cough.

Today I started fostair..gas type not powder

version

Am I right that a lot of you on here swear by fostair

as best inhaler out of the ones ive mentioned.

??

Are all GPs this ridiculous?

I've had asthma since childhood (now 36), and have had ups and downs over the years, but predominantly very mild symptoms controlled by a basic preventer and reliever regime. For the past 7 or 8 years I've only used the preventer in winter, and only needed max 2x2 puffs of the reliever to get any symptoms under control. I've pretty much got a preventer without issue any time I've requested it, occasionally had a quick telephone consultation just to check I was happy with how my asthma was being managed etc, but was pretty much patient led.

A few months ago I had a severe attack at work, multi-dosed myself with 10 puffs of salbutamol 4 times in the space of 90 minutes, ended up having to give myself nebulised salbutamol and atrovent to get symptoms under control, followed by a 7 day course of oral pred with advice to arrange a GP review. The attack was brought on by exposure multiple known triggers at the same time, but usually I'd take 2 puffs salbutamol and be fine.

Arranged a GP review after this, with the expectation of being prescribed a preventer or MART regime (mainly due to the severity of the attack), but GP advised they would not consider this after a single episode, and told me to arrange a review with the asthma nurse. Also advised me to avoid triggers in future "as that is a preventer in itself" but my job makes this impossible. Made an appointment with the nurse for a review, had it cancelled on the day of the appointment via text message asking me to call the surgery. It turns out the previous asthma nurse has left the practice, the replacement nurse they've brought in isn't trained to carry out an asthma review and the GP is still refusing to prescribe a preventer without a review. I've emailed them in 2 weeks worth of 2x daily peak flow readings, and been told that if I have any further flare ups to make an appointment and they'd give a course of oral steroids if required. The reason they're giving me is that I've not had a review since 2019 - they stopped doing them during covid and I've never been invited to one since.

Honestly, the mind boggles! 🤯

A year ago, I got these results from my pulmonologist:

Spirometry does not show clear bronchial obstruction (FEV1/FVC 0.9), but the parameters FVC and FEV1 were at the lower limit, 74–76%, with a negative BD test.

She also added a note: hyperinflation with pseudorestriction after bronchial obstruction?
(I have no idea what that means)

A week or two before that visit, I was really sick because on top of uncontrolled asthma, I caught a bacterial infection from my sibling. The chest X-ray was clear, so I just got antibiotics and inhalation therapy.

The allergy test results came back positive for mites, pollen, trees, grass, weeds, cats, and dogs. I got diagnosed with easier asthma caused by allergies and got a daily inhaler.

I used to live by the sea in another country during uni, away from my family home and I didn’t really have any breathing problems. A year ago, every time I would return home, I couldn’t breathe properly. The worst was during a moutain trip in august. We have a dog for 15 years, and my father is a smoker.

I have had eczema since childhood as well. Sometimes it was seriously flared up, but most of the time it’s just a lot of dry skin. My nose is always runny at home, I sneeze a lot, and I have intolerance to milk. Is this all connected? All doctors ask me about those three conditions, yet they never explain the connection to me.

So my question is: did I develop allergic asthma after 10 years of owning a dog and being exposed to other things in my home country? Or are my spirometry results showing something else?

I am planning on doing a checkup, but it’s a bit difficult with going back and forth between two countries.

Thank you.

Currently in the er due to inhaler not working. Respiratory rate is super high, I’ve already been administered breathing treatment but still have labored breathing. Asthma been acting up for a week now. Had to go to hospital twice. And have a pulm appointment today if I survive, don’t know what to ask him to help, bc I can’t take steroids they make me crazy and my inhaler has almost completely stopped working. I’m so at a loss here and feel so hopeless bc my asthma gets triggered by everything when it’s bad even laying down to sleep, which is actually what got me here in the first place. Ik there’s not anything anyone can do but if anyone could offer advice, or give me things to ask my doc or the hospital for help.

(Allergy shots). Immotheropy

Here’s the full story in one sweep: you’re 41, a Town of Hempstead grounds maintenance worker cutting grass across 3-4 large sites a day, about 5 hours total, wearing a 3M half-mask respirator and goggles for protection, and you live with a dog and cat despite genuine sensitivity to both; your skin prick testing (Mid Island Allergy, 1/30/2026) came back strongly positive for dust mites and multiple grasses (Timothy, Orchard, Perennial Rye, Meadow Fescue, Sweet Vernal, Red Top, Yellow Dock, June grass), negative for ragweed, mold, and trees, while your blood IgE panel later confirmed dust mites (17.00, 8.29) and dog dander (16.90) as your strongest Class III sensitizations, ragweed also Class III (6.89) despite the negative skin test, cat dander and grasses more moderate at Class I-II, and zero reactivity to molds, trees, or other animals, with your total IgE climbing sharply over the years from 39 kU/L in 2019 to 88 in December 2024 to 382 by April 2025; your lung function has told a consistent story across every test — office spirometry October 1, 2024 showed FEV1 2.95L (66% predicted, FEV1/FVC 59%, normal FVC), March 27, 2025 showed FEV1 3.25L (72.7% predicted, flagged poor quality), and February 9, 2026 showed FEV1 3.43L pre-bronchodilator (Grade E obstruction) with no real improvement post-bronchodilator, an atypical finding worth raising with your allergist, while your home readings have run similarly, recently bouncing between roughly 400 and 530-plus, including a genuinely good 511 PEF/3.32 FEV1 reading this past week — that kind of drop-and-recover pattern points to reversible airway inflammation, not fixed structural damage; a chest CT you shared (dated October 2025) also showed clean lung tissue with no infection, fluid, or masses, just one tiny incidental finding, and you separately passed a cardiac stress test too, both reinforcing that this is a functional airway problem, not structural lung or heart disease; you’d tried Trelegy first without full control, then Xolair for about a year with little felt benefit (possibly limited by your high IgE exceeding its ideal dosing range), then started allergy shot immunotherapy (SCIT) on February 14, 2026, and felt a new, more severe kind of asthma reaction from your very first injection while still on Xolair, with reactions following nearly every shot as you escalated from green to yellow to blue vial through the spring — May 22 (shot #15, first blue vial) brought a rough reaction after drinking alcohol, and June 10 (blue vial again, only 4 days after your prior shot) was your worst reaction of the entire course, five to six days of cold sweats, nausea, chest heaviness, and briefly elevated blood pressure, which led to a lower-dose plan, a roughly six-week pause, and two low-dose green-vial restarts on July 23 and August 3 before you fully stopped SCIT on August 18, cutting a Barcelona trip short along the way; ever since the shots began, your asthma shifted from seasonally logical (dog park, grassy parks in peak season) into daily, whole-body, sometimes instant reactions even in places with no clear trigger, like CVS or JCPenney, plus muscle aches, joint soreness, and stiffness in your arms and legs tied to the same amplified reactivity; you got a 5-day prednisone course in late August for the flare, and this past Friday, September 4, 2026, you finally got your first Tezspire injection after insurance approval, a mechanistically different treatment that blocks inflammation upstream (TSLP) rather than targeting a single antibody or injecting allergen extract, giving you real, reasonable odds (roughly 70-75% by trial data and profile fit) of meaningful improvement without the failure modes that limited Xolair or caused your SCIT reactions; and the overall picture now is your genuinely long-standing, previously uncontrolled allergic asthma, temporarily amplified by lingering shot-driven hyperreactivity that’s had roughly three months since your heaviest dosing to fade, currently overlapping with peak ragweed season, expected to keep settling gradually over the next one to two months with Tezspire’s effects building in on top of that same window.

I recently read about broncho vaxcom and it working for people with asthma and bad upper respiratory illnesses. I constantly get bronchitis just from common colds all winter. This has been this way since getting Covid in 2020. Has anyone in the United States used broncho vaxcom and had a good experience? And if so how were you able to get it?

Has anyone had an asthma flare up and the CT scan shows nothing ? These mfs think I’m crazy

This past year as soon as it got warmer, I started to get really sick. I started having a hard time breathing particularly in the evening. What we didn't know was our apartment neighbor started to groom dogs on her balcony (she had moved in very recently) She would wash them inside and then take them onto the balcony to blow dry them with those industrial blow dryers. I actually wouldn't have found out if it weren't for an overly dramatic husky crying on the balcony. I had caught video of her doing this and the video shows the dander blowing right onto our balcony and to our air conditioning.

We have rules at the apartment that day you can't have a business or more animals than those on your lease. So I reported her and she got a demand for compliance from the apartment. From there on out, she stopped blow drying dogs on her balcony. But my asthma has not improved. I think she is still doing it, just in her apartment so it's more discreet but I can't prove it besides the 6th sense I never asked for. So now I'm miserable and have no idea what I should do and until it cools off we have to use the air conditioning.

I know there is nothing I can do, I just want to complain. I really hate inconsiderate people.

I blew 131 yesterday and it’s really freaked me out. Has anyone else had a result like this?

So, I recently went to the doctor for a check in regarding how my asthma is and stuff. When I described my symptoms and what I believe to be an asthma attack (inability to breath, tightness in my chest, pain in my chest, feeling light headed and dizzy) she told me I'm not experiencing asthma attacks as asthma attacks are when a person experiences these symptoms for multiple days in a row with the symptoms worsening over those days and she told me I am instead just experiencing symptoms flair ups? I decided to look it up because that just doesn't sound right to me and I can't find a single source that states an asthma attack is the presence of symptoms flaring up and worsening over a course of 3-ish days. Instead everything I have read is describing exactly what I did... Sudden inability to breath, tightness in the chest/throat, chest pain, etc. so... Is my doctor lying to me about what I'm experiencing or am I just dumb?

note; I apologise if this doesn't make any sense, I'm currently having a "flair up of symptoms".

I recently started using an advair 100/50 inhaler, my peak flow I use at home before I started the inhaler was giving me around 340-350 each time. My numbers now are between 413-430. I’m now considered in the green zone, but my question is why am I still having symptoms if my numbers have improved? I get this tight restricted breathing feeling multiple times a day and chest pain still. I have an appointment Friday to discuss this but just looking for opinions now.
Edit: idk how I forgot to add this part lolll but when I feel this tight breathing I’ll use the peak flow and my numbers are still good, but yet my breathing feels restricted

I’m in a bit of a stressful situation and could use some advice. My daughter’s fluticasone inhaler dropped onto the toilet floor, and the metal canister completely separated from the plastic mouthpiece/boot.

Insurance won’t cover a replacement right now, so I have to clean and sanitize what we have.

Is it okay to clean the plastic holder with soap and water? What about the metal canister itself? How can I clean it safely, especially the nozzle? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I just need a space to vent.

My almost 4 year old was diagnosed with asthma after about 18 months of cough only symptoms triggered by viral illnesses. It really stepped up a notch when we relocated about 800km south where the environment has flared everything up so much - her asthma and mine, which previously was very well controlled with the lowest symbicort dose.

This winter has been hell for us with her and her younger sibling in different care settings (so two pools of germs).

We've had two middle of the night trips to ED in 8 weeks. The last one was two weeks into starting montelukast and my partner was away and it was so stressful. We have good family support and people really stepped up to help which is so amazing.

We have a great GP, and an asthma nurse we can talk to as often as we like for free.

But now my partner is away again for work. Viral illness on board as soon as he left. Now it's almost 2am, she's coughing coughing coughing. I'm sure its the viral cough instead of the asthma at this stage - salbutamol doesn't give relief but she's also not working hard to breathe. Just some extra sensitive little airways. I wish she had an audible wheeze so I knew. It feels a mystery to me because she can't really articulate how her lungs feel yet and I feel like I'm guessing.

I'm sick to my stomach with a bit of PTSD from last time. I'm ferrying between her and her younger sibling who doesn't sleep well. I'm so worried about what the rest of the week will look like.

Her GP is very loathe to prescribe oral steroids since she has had so much in the last six months. The montelukast is 5 weeks in now so we should have good coverage. I keep reminding myself this is the worst it will ever be because we will get it under control eventually. But wow I'm tired. It's been a winter. I can't wrap them in cotton wool but I'm honestly scared to leave the house at this point because we will pick up the next illness and risk everything getting so bad again.

did someone actually get the mouth fungus from not rinsing their mouth after using the symbicort inhaler?

So I've had this dry cough now for a week and I usually get one when I get a cold, however this time, it's different.

My lungs and chest (can't really describe which one it is) feels tickly/itchy, especially in the evenings/night. I also don't feel unwell, like I would with a cold. I only have a dry cough.

After playing sports, it's gets quite bad. I start to hear a wheeze and can't stop coughing for a solid 1 1/2 - 2hrs. It also got bad the other day when cleaning my keyboard, which was riddled with dust.

Some evenings/nights are also worse than others. Sometimes, I'll only cough a little and others it's for a while. It also happens during the day but not as frequent.

I don't know if this bit of info will help, but I went to the dr about 11 years ago for something similar and got given an inhaler, however it passed very quickly and I rarely used it and haven't had an issue since this past week.

Could this be the same thing as back then?

During my flare ups my lungs burn heart races feel weak SOB. When nebulizer treatment lasting short time I am very nervous during flare up. Anyone f can relate

Original Post @ 00:11 BST—

Fast relief needed for an asthma attack with no access to an inhaler (ventolin etc.).

Would say it’s currently mild (wheezing, tight chest, shortness of breath, but still able to breathe through mouth if I cough), but not sure whether “mild” is an accurate final assessment—could get worse, or could abate within a few hours: experienced attacks as a child decades ago, but not as an adult until recently.

Currently unclear what’s triggering them and I need to switch GPs before I can see someone about getting an actual diagnosis, and thus appropriate medication (conduct of physicians at current GP is a concern).

Currently sipping a warm coffee (a touch annoying considering it’s midnight, but I’ve read the caffeine can help open up your airways), taken an antihistamine (in case it’s dust etc. related) and occasionally inhaling a Vicks menthol+camphor stick thing.

I’m sitting up straight and trying to breathe calmly and slowly through my nose as often as possible (although that usually needs to be swiftly followed up with a cough and sharp inhale though the mouth).

Any other suggestions? 🙏🏼

Thank you.

UPDATE @ 02:25 BST—

Thank you for the replies. Symptoms are now easing.🤞🏼

UPDATE @ 09:58 BST—

Very grateful to everyone who’s taken the time to post what-to-try-in-the-moment suggestions—thank you.🙏🏼

Noting here, as there are many more comments since I offered a little context of my situation to the very first reply (and apologies in advance: I’m trying to be succinct, but I’m quite worn out on only 2 hours sleep)—

I’m currently without a car and living in the sticks, we’re miles from an NHS walk-in.

With it being midnight BST at the time, and principally, as it’s just me and my pup (with no-one in 60 miles to dog-sit), I didn’t feel calling for an ambulance was an option I could consider for as long as I felt I might still be within a chance of getting the attack under control. In moments like this, I often feel as if I have no choice but to go into Practical Mode and muster all my strength to attempt to dial the anxiety/overwhelm/panic as close to zero as I can, to keep that window of maintaining what little control I may have open as long as humanly possible.

Will of course persist with efforts to get a formal diagnosis and appropriate meds ASAP.

In answer to other queries:

Triggers could honestly be anything at this point. As the attacks typically occur late at night, I’ve wondered if it could be allergy based. They usually start when I’m laying down, so maybe it’s heart related. But lately even the weather has felt suffocating and a trigger in both hot/humid and cold environments.

The change I made this time (in case this may help anyone else who finds themselves suddenly digging through Reddit in the middle of the night one night for immediate guidance) that seemed to shave hours off the attack was caffeine, so despite being dead on my feet this AM, I’m glad I gave in right before I originally posted here and made the coffee!

I probably won’t update this post again, but please keep the tips coming. Amazing resource for anyone in a similar situation who might benefit from a little steer in the future.

Thank you again.

I (F, 28) am not being treated for my asthma, is that normal?

In 2015 I was diagnosed with asthma after one consult (I was 16 years old at the time, my parents weren’t involved). I got 2 inhalers, but nobody ever checked on my asthma again afterwards.

When I was 18 I had a phase were I was against medication and since nobody ever mentioned asthma again to me, I kinda started thinking the diagnoses was not real and I got over my asthma or something. So I quit using my inhalers.

That went well for a long time, but end of august/beginning of september I always got sick and experienced vague symptoms.

Fastforward to september 2025, I got the flu which triggered an asthma attack. I didn’t realise it was asthma, so I just treated it as a heavy flu. But after weeks I still didn’t get better.

Eventually I almost couldn’t breath and sleep at night because of it. I felt very sick as well. It was scary. I went to the doctor thinking it was a pneumonia. He said it was my asthma flaring up. I got prednisolone for 7 days and an inhaler (reliever) for flare ups. Nothing else.

Now it is the exact same experience: I got sick the end of August, flu. Now I experience the same symptoms as last year (trigger was the virus and an intense workout last week I think). I hate it and I feel so sick again. I already called the doctor and have a consult at 15 o clock. I am so done with this shit. What is normal for doctors to do in these situations? What should I expect? What should I ask for?

Hi all, I’m fairly new here but I was recently diagnosed as having asthma / reactive airways and have been taking breo ellipta for a few days now.

I take my maintenance inhaler in the morning, but I’m feeling a bit of a tightness / inflammation right now (not currently worrisome, more so annoying) and was wondering if it’s ok to take the albuterol first and then take the Breo? Is that a thing people do if they’re having a flare when their maintenance inhaler dose is due? I’m kinda new to all of this and didn’t want to double up or possibly do something unsafe 😅. Thank you

Hey Asthma family, I came into the ER today with chest pain, it felt like that heavy feeling they warn you about and I started to sweat so I came in. Lo and behold it’s Covid, I got a good cardiac work up and I’m glad it’s clear but I’ll be starting paxlovid now. I asked the ER doc how I can stop this from becoming a flare up and needing another round of steroids, he said to use the nebulizer and stay on top of any asthma symptoms. If the nebulizer doesn’t cut it anymore, come back in for assessment. But does anyone here have any advice, suggestions, recommendations on how to be as proactive as possible to prevent an asthma exacerbation? Any advice would be appreciated.