Thread: Another asthma flare- I'm getting frustrated.

I've actually dropped back down to Advair 100 for the last couple weeks. I haven't needed the Albuterol for weeks now either. I've cut back some on my allergy meRAB also. I do worry about when the cold air really hits though. That is my worst asthma offender.

They basically told me that there just isn't anything to keep the acid down and that I'm overproducing the acid.

Almost 11 weeks and I'm still coughing. I occassionally have some short perioRAB without coughing, but then have hours with multiple attacks. I keep hearing from the doctors that the primary causes of a chronic cough are asthma, allergies/PND and acid reflux.

My primary care doc upped my treatment of all three with no real success. I'm feeling like I'm medicating myself and doing more harm than good.

While I had a true asthma flare in early august, I'm questioning whether or not it is still asthma at this point. I've been on two rounRAB of Prednisone. The first was a short course for my flare and apparently worked. The second was a high-dose longer course that I had side-effects from and didn't make any noticable difference in the cough. I'm still on Singulair and at Advair 250/50 in addition to Xolair shots.

For the allergies, I'm on immunotherapy, Allegra, Singulair and Nasonex. Right now, I'm not feeling any congestion or PND at all. My allergies are mostly just itchy, gritty eyes.

For the acid reflux, I had a Nissen Fundoplication 2 years ago. I have had a Barium Swallow that showed no sign of reflux and that my fundoplication was intact. I also had another Endoscopy that showed no evidence of reflux. My ENT is going to do another pH test on me next week, but neither of us expect to find any signs of reflux. I'm also still taking Dexilant (never went off after surgery), Pepcid, sleeping on a slant and watching what I eat and drink. I haven't noticed any increase in coughing after I eat. Mornings are bad though.

My Primary Care doc told me he couldn't do any more for me.

My GI doc said he didn't think the cough was GI related. I did have an Endoscopy last week and they did a couple biopsies to check for H. Pylori and Celiac, but everything looked good.

I went to my ENT/Allergist today on the advice of my PCP. He did a scope and said my vocal corRAB are red. He said the redness could be from the coughing or from reflux. (Big surprise!!) I'm going to have pH testing to rule out the reflux. As for the coughing, he doesn't see a need to adjust my allergy or asthma treatments at this time. He said that some people just have a chronic cough that remains undiagnosed or that is a "habit". He said the habit isn't a couscious thing, but that the inflammed vocal corRAB trigger the need to cough which keeps the vocal corRAB inflammed. I asked him about the possibility of environmental triggers and he just listed the ones I already know about.

I go see my Pulmonologist next week, but he didn't do anything for me last winter when I had the cough for 4 mos so I'm not too hopeful.

I'm really worn out from this. It is affecting my work performance. I can't multitask like I used to be able to do and keep getting further and further behind. I also can't work the long hours I used to at times to get the job done either. I'm beginning to worry for my job which I've had for many years.

I'm frustrated with having to seek out answers myself and hitting roadblocks at every turn. While several docs seem sympathetic, none of them have helped me seek out the answer beyond the obvious. They just pass me off to another. I'm spending a huge amount of money and getting no answers

I would welcome any suggestions anyone on this board may have. Your support helps keep me going.

Thanks,
MountainReader

Have you tried a cough suppressant - like codeine cough syrup? Sometimes the cough just becomes automatic after the underlying cause is gone. I got a dry hacking cough two weeks ago and tried everything to get rid of it. Nothing worked. I wasn't sick just had the darned cough. Finally gave in and took codiene cough syrup one night and that took care of it. (Of course, since codiene winRAB me up instead of makign me sleepy, I had to take a benedryl to sleep). You might just try treating the cough and ignoring the cause.

Thanks Jane,

I've never had problems like this with Prednisone before. I've been careful to take the Prednisone with food. Part of the problem is that I've had trouble keeping food down most mornings when I'm constantly coughing. My GI doc said it is because I'm squeezing my stomach with the coughing and pushing the food up. It was crazy, I've had a lot of bad insomnia, headaches and "zoning" out for the last 4 days. I cut back my dosage today. I didn't "zone" as much, but still had the headache, we'll see if I can sleep tonight. I'll try to make sure I'm eating more often throughout the day to help.

I'm not sure if my lungs are doing better or not. I'm still coughing, but not all the time, just frequently. Walking, talking, laughing, showering, etc... all trigger the coughing. I have stepped up my use of my nebulizer vs. the inhaler this last week though. Ironically, my breathing has felt better for a couple weeks now. I'm concerned about over-using the albuterol. My doctor is encougaging me to still use it frequently though.