could it be more than asthma?

My 4 year old daughter has been diag. with asthma, everytime she gets a cold she gets very sick, and needs breathing treatments with the neb. This time she has had a fever for over a week and at night wakes up and cant, breath at all she starts frailing around,and when she finally gets air in she starts screeming, The treatments now only seem to take the edge off. Could there be somthing other than asthma wrong with her?  Im worried she is going to suffercate in her sleep.
                                                                             thank you.

[Pum]

Sounds like she needs a preventor treatment (inhaled steriod). See your doctor soon as that must be really scary for her.

Good luck.

[elaine1972]

Definitely see her doc about a controller med such as pulmicort or ask about a short course oral steroid to get control of this episode and then start a daily preventative.  You should also ask about croup (given the fever and the difficulty breathing at night), especially if you notice a barking cough or stridor when she breathes.  My 3 yr old has asthma and sometimes he gets in these stages where the albuterol (rescue med) doesn't help and only oral steroids do the trick.  He has also had croup several times when I thought it was asthma.