new to asthma..if thats what I have..just guessing..

48 yr old female..never had asthma in my life. But..Im just wondering whats going on..and yes..I will be seeing my Dr...I just thought I would come here first...
I had the H1N1 flu mid-Nov. I am in week 2 of getting over it. It started with the dry cough...which lasted throughout the entire horrible flu. The cough has hung on. They tell me that seems to be the norm. During the flu..I did alot of what im told is wheezing...when I would lay down to sleep I would "crackle" when I breathed..which I found very irritating. I coughed all the time. At one point they wanted me to go to ER for chest xray..but I was alone..and actually, too sick, weak, etc, to take myself there. So they prescribed an antibiotic.
Now, in week 2 of recovery, I am left with the cough. Not enough to keep me up at night, not enough to annoy my coworkers too much..but ..its there. Always there. Dont really cough up anything...maybe clear stuff. But I do wheeze some, mostly at night. I went to the Nurse Practitioner at our clinic at work. She spent alot of time listening to my left upper lung..said she " heard something". I thought she would send me for a chest Xray..but she didnt..I am still run down, exhausted and not myself yet, Im assuming remnants from the flu.
She prescribed a dose of Prednisone. Now..Ive heard horror stories about that drug. She said this one is a "package"...and the dose is very small 4mg/pill...you take 6 the first day..5 the second...4 the 3rd..and so on.
She didnt tell me WHY she said Prednisone...or what she was treating?
Anybody know?
Could the flu have brought on asthma? We just went thru a major blizzard here in Wisconsin..and today, I noticed that I feel a tad short of breath. When I walk. When I am outside in the cold, my chest "burns"...best way to describe it. I am coughing...same old thing...
Could I have developed Asthma? Oh, I DID NOT take the Prednisone.....and now am chicken to go back to the Dr and tell her I didnt....

[allmymarbles]

Do not take prednisone for the flu. Predisnone can have serious side effects. The dose she gave you was not small. To ease the sore throat use slippery elm tablets. For your chest congestion take 1000 mg. of vitamin B5 daily until your chest is clear. I am just getting over the flu and this has taken longer than I expected. You should not have been given antibiotics without proof of a bacterial infection. The flu does not cause asthma.

[Victoireh]

Your airways are still sensitive from the flu, and I've heard that the H1N1 goes quite deep into the lungs. You can't make an asthma diagnosis from have one bad virus. For some healthy people they have a cough after a chest infection that can last for 2 months. They just have irritable airways, but they don't have asthma. Also not everyone who wheezes has asthma. You can get bronchitis and wheeze, but never have asthma.

You were probably prescribed prednisone to help clear the extra mucous in your lungs. I would certainly give your lungs a lot more time to recover, as they've taken quite a beating. However if you find your symptoms get worse or you develop a fever, don't hesitate to see your doctor. Hopefully your cough will continue to get less and less over time and eventually disappear altogether. Just remember to take care of yourself during this time, so that you don't catch a secondary infection.

[Tammy2009]

I had a cough for 10 weeks after a bad cold (2 years before I was diagnosed with asthma).  Horrible thing, felt somewhat feel in between coughs but the cough itself was horrible!  It sounded like I was going to hack up part of my lungs.  

I think you are right for not taking the predinsone ... if the nurse "thought she heard something" it could be pnemonia (pneumonia) or just wheezing.  I don't think I would want the predinsone knocking down my immune system when it might still be killing something.  

Don't be afraid to go back and tell them you didn't take something.  Know the info about it and explain the reason why you didn't take it.  However, in the future, call your doctor (or pharmicist) back if you are unclear why you are taking something and ask more questions.  You don't want to ignore a medication and then have the disease get much worse .... If the doctor takes the questioning personally then they aren't a very good doctor (or having a really bad day ;)  ).