is this asthma

[jbreath]

i'm a ex smoker and have worked around many harmful chemicals including sulfuric acid. About a year ago i started having a slight shortness of breath with hard exercise and i have increased mucus in my sinus and my lung. i went to a doctor he said i had fluid in my lungs after an xray. my blood was 98  percent saturated with oxygen after i walked around. He gave me a lot of asthma medicine like advlair and singlar and proventil. I still have excess mucus. Afrin will clear it up but a lot of times my chest feels swollen. i had a stress test that came back ok. I have just been diagnosed with sleep apena. My question is: Is this somthing permenate thats going get worse or over time will this get better? should i b worried about a wrong diagnosis. The doctor was a pulmonary and internal medicine specilist who has had a lot of recommendations. Im jsut tired of feeling like this. Every now and again when i blow my nose i see blood too. Its not when i spit just when i blow my nose. I dont really cough

[caregiver222]

As long as the mucus is clear, you are in good shape. These darned infections go into remission and encapsulate themselves, and come out again when the immune system is depressed (or you take too much prednisone).  A perfect example of such a long-term bacterial infection, which can last for years in the lung, is tuberculosis. As to other varieties of bacteria the jury is out. The problem with sinus infections is that they tend to migrate to the lung from time to time, and are difficult to eliminate.

[jbreath]

thanks but ive been having a problem with this for over a year. i woke up coughing today i think the mucus was clear and usually when i cough (like after hard exercise its clear mucus) Is it possible to have an infection for  a years time

[caregiver222]

I might add steroids remain the treatment of choice for many physicians. Even when there is evidence of infection they often give steroids and antibiotics, which, in my humble opinion is plan stupid. But that's just me. If you have yellow mucus you need it to be cultured, which I understand is still done in some hospitals in the jungles of Nicaragua. They will probably give you nonsense about "only a sample obtained by broncospy is of value", a position taken by many witch doctors in Zaire.

[caregiver222]

You have a reasonable probability of a bacterial lung infection. Go to the drugstore and purchase a non-prescription expectorant (Robitussin). Do not purchase a couch suppressant. When you cough up mucus examine it. If it is tinged with yellow you have a bacterial infection. These infections can reside in the lung for a long time, or in the sinus and drip down into the lung. An asthma medicine containing steroids will provide momentary relief, but make the infection worse. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that your exposure to acid caused an inflammation in the sinus and lung that made it susceptable to a low-grade persistant bacterial infection that has become well established. This creature lives in a mucus biofilm that coats the alveoli and is the reason for your "sleep apnea". Steroids are the wrong train, wrong track, wrong direction.