Hard to breath and lose my voice

[billyd67]

I started a new Job in October and ever since then I have had difficulty breathing and some days I lose my voice almost totally. I have been in and out of the Dr and now using Symbicort and taking prednisone. It is wierd this only happens during the week while I am at work. Weekends seen to be fine after a little time away. Is this Asthma or am I alergice to my workplace? Should I test the air quality?

[bsmsl]

There is some thing called occupational asthma.  You could experience asthma triggered by something in your work place.  

It sounds like Symbicort is not working for you.  You may want to ask your doctor about trying Advair or Dulera.  Dulera seems to work the best for me.  Symbicort does absolutely nothing for me.  Everyone metabolizies medications defferently, so Symbicort may not be the best choice for you.

You do want to get off the prednisone as soon as possible.  DO NOT just stop taking it.  That can cause serious problems.  Long term use of pred will cause a host of problems from diabetes, liver and heart damage, adrenal problems...  It is not a medication that should be used as a maintenance medication.  

I hope that helps you some.

Take care and feel better.
God bless.

[Resilient_Mimi]

It could be any typre of allergy there. From mold to dust mites. I would check the air quality... Good idea!

[987931]

Hi, I don't know the answer to your question, but I can empathise. For years, I had terrible troubles in a workplace with a set of symptoms that are very hard to describe. Eventually it became clear that flourescent light was the major issue. I work under natural light now, thank goodness.

All I would say is that you should keep in mind that a workplace is an environment with many possible elements that may cause you problems, but not others. To this day, I find it difficult to believe so many people can spend 8 hours a day under flourescent lighting. I struggle to manage two hours now and then. However, it seems most people aren't bothered by it. There could be some allergin. To take one example, is there any new furniture, carpet etc around? This can give of chemicals, some of which I believe can trigger allergies (hopefully someone can give better info than me on this). I would experiment a bit. If you leave the workplace for a while and come back are your symptoms better? Do you spend most time in one location, or do you move around? Can you try to pinpoint which location(s) are worst?

Best of luck with it.