Life-threatening asthma attack

I recently was admitted to the hospital twice within 2 weeks; the first with a bad asthma attack and influenza; the second with a "life-threatening" asthma attack.  The last time I was admitted, I had to be intubated because of my breathing problems; and after extubation they thought they were going to have to reintubate me because of continued trouble -- spent 3 days in ICU and another 3 in a regular room.  I am now home on several meds, but am still concerned with my breathing and horrible lack of stamina.

I still get extremely short of breath when just trying to move around the house normally -- I am not trying to do anything out of the ordinary.  I cannot make it up a full flight of steps to the bathroom without sitting down to rest.

My peak flows, although higher than what they were when I was first admitted to hosp.; are still not back to what my "normal" is -- they are still about 75-100 points lower.  I am currently on oral prednisone (tapering now); albuterol nebs every 4 hrs; serevent 2xday; flovent 2xday.  Just finished dose of Levaquin also -- was on for 10 day dosage.  LFT's in hosp were elevated, but are now almost back to normal.

My doc says to not be too concerned about lack of stamina, etc. -- my body went through a lot when I had the code blue, intubation, etc. and it might take a month or more to get back to where I was.  But I am still concerned about the difficulty breathing even with such small activities such as taking a shower

Do you agree with the doc about giving it time or should I pursue further and harder?

Thank you.

[National Jewish]

Your body has been exposed to a tremendous shock. It will take a while for the stamina to come back. As far as the lung function is concerned, as long as it is gradually improving on your current medications and not either falling back or staying the same (well below your best), I would agree that it will take a while. However, you should be continually improving on your current regimen or consider the need to increase the medications.

[dozerscritch]

little bit more information:

I've only been home now for 3 days;  They say the elevated LFT's were due to the breathing problems and they are not too concerned about them but are keeping an eye on them.  Also had some fluid behind the heart when they intubated me -- also said that was from the breathing problems.

The code blue I had was the day AFTER I had originally been intubated -- I had started to vomit with the tube still in, which caused it to partially come out and twist -- then respiratory tried to give me a breathing treatment, which completely blocked my airway and caused the code blue -- heart did not stop, but was very slow -- BP was extremely low -- they pulled tube rest of way out and was about to re-intubate me when I started to breath on my own.

This was the worst attack I have ever had and doc now says that every attack I have will have to be taken much more seriously because it could happen again and because I went downhill so quickly this time.

I don't remember a whole lot of what happened, but doc says that is a good thing -- says I was extremely critical and almost died twice, so if I don't remember it all it is good -- she said it would be too scary to remember it all.

I am very concerned that I am still having so much trouble and don't want to end up back in the hospital, so would appreciate any suggestions/ideas that anyone can give.

Thank you