Shortness of breath and no wheezing?

[MomNC]

I'm a 36 year old healthy female who had childhood asthma and a fwe flares as an adult. Seasonal allergies are my trigger.

We moved to NC last August and I've been sick ever since!

I was dx'd w/ a paralyzed vocal cord beginning in Aug as well(idiopathic as I had clear xray and CT in Jan '07). Last month I had surgery to place an implant in the left vocal fold. I had suffered from "air wasting" all year but it is a non-issue now that I had surgery.

This spring my allergies were awful as was my asthma. I was on oral steroids (Medrol pack) 3 times and I felt 100% better all three times. I also began taking Advair in addition to my Singulair and Zyrtec. As soon as I was done with the Medrol packs, I slowly went downhill again. The Advair (added after 2nd round of Medrol) slows that decline.

3 wks ago I began getting SOB (no wheezing!) again after any physical activity (like loading toddler and stroller in car, walking up any incline, cleaning house). The nebulizer seems to loosen things up (lots of phlegm comes up when I cough all spring) but it doesn't cure the SOB. Instead I actually wheeze AFTER a neb treatment. Shouldn't the Advair be keeping this at bay?

Is this asthma or something else? I respond well to oral steroids (is an amazing change in breathing), and I wheeze after using my nebulizer as if it's loosening things up in there. But before any meds, I'm just SOB and am fatigued because of it. Thanks in advance!

[National Jewish]

This is almost definitely your asthma that has become worse.  It is hard to determine the reason for this.  However, because of all of the problems and the three courses of oral steroids, it is time to see a specialist, such as a pulmonologist or a board certified allergist, to get the asthma under control.  Once this has occurred, you can work on getting to the cause and hopefully getting your asthma under control.

[crystalfresh]

I'm not a doctor. You said something about allergies? You may want to ask your doctor about these drugs to help reduce the effects from your allergies and breathing from allergies:

1. Antihistamines.
2. Cromolyn Sodium nebulizer

See what your doctor thinks. Don't try any medication before talking to your doctor first!

[MomNC]

I saw my doctor on Friday. She added Atrovent to my neb (along with albuterol, strong burst/taper of Predinsone, and a referral to a Pulmonologist, It's been scary wondering if this was something else (since I'm used to wheezing the WHOLE time, not just after neb use). You've put my mind at ease and I've been feeling GREAT since adding the new meds. I am glad you agree it's asthma and a pulmonologist is in order.

Thanks again.

[Cirila]

I had a similar problem. I had a history of asthma when I was a little and when away by 15. Now at 33 and after having pneumonia last year my asthma came back. This time it was very different because I didn't wheeze at all, I was just SOB everytime I was doing little things like walking, carrying a grocery bag, going up the stairs, etc. everything in my chest seemed to be very congested that I wasn't even wheezing.
I thought it was something else because none of the inhalers were working, I've been taking pulmicort, serevent, spiriva, intal, albuterol all at the same time and prednisone several times as well.
Well after a year of being like this, finally seems that I'm getting better so I think it was just a matter of time, probably my airways were really imflame and needed long time to recover.