Wheeze

[sunfan32]

I am a 31 year old male, who has never smoked, I have had a pretty constant wheeze since about the end of January, it's not something that pops up now and then it seems to be there all the time. In January, I came down with a cold, my symptoms at that time were congestion, cough, wheeze, fever, sneezing.  While most all of the symptoms went away in a few days the wheezing has remained and now it is mid March.  I do live in a house with 4 cats that I am allergic to.  If i sit in a room where they lay I will begin sneezing and getting watery eyes very shortly after.  They are not allowed in my bedroom but I am wondering if being in the same house breathing in their dander in winter months when doors and windows are closed may be causing the constant wheeze.  The wheeze has very little impact on my daily life, I am able to work, exercise, and carry on with my life without even thinking about it if it was not very being reminded of it by hearing it when I breath hard. I don't even seem to have a cough with it.  If I breath super hard to try to hear the wheeze good, I may end up coughing, but in general I don't cough., I do clear my throat often, swallow often, and have the need to spit often which makes me wonder if this is a post nasal drip situation.  My spit or mucus is always clear or white, never has been discolored or bloody.  The wheezing seems to be worse or more noticeable when I am laying down or just woken up.   When I am at work, I do still have the wheeze though, even though I feel it isn't as noticeable.  I have an appointment with my GP on April 10th but I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on this or give me some ideas of medicines to try that might flush the wheeze out.  I appreciate all input.  

[David Tinkelman, M.D.]

Most such abnormal sounds originate in the lungs.  However, sounds that originate higher in the respiratory tract (larynx or throat) may also resemble wheezes from the chest. The first question to be answered is, are these “wheezes from the lungs or from the upper airways.  If from the lungs, the most likely diagnosis would be asthma, quite possibly related to  and worsened by your cat allergy.  If in the larynx, the wheezes could be caused by abnormal vocal cord function (VCD).  When the larynx is the site of origin, the wheezes are usually occur predominantly, but not always, with inspiration.  So the first order of business must be a determination of the wheeze site of origin (by physical examination and pulmonary function testing) and then additional testing or physical examination to determine the cause.

It is good that the cats are prevented from entering your bedroom.  That reduces the intensity of your exposure but there is probably some dander in the bedroom via air circulation, heating-air conditioning and on your clothing..

Asthma is a very treatable disease.

Good luck

[sunfan32]

I just wanted to give you an update, since I made this post someone recommended taking zyrtec D for the allergies, and that seemed to help a great deal with the wheeze.  It became only noticeable when i exhaled very forcefully.  When I breath normally or even exercise I would not hear anything.  I also would like to add that this whole situation has caused me a great deal of anxiety so I am  not sure if I was making something out of nothing.  Is it normal to hear something in the throat when you are exhaling very forcefully almost like stretching your exhale as far as you can?  It is like if I wasn't checking for the sound by exhaling so long I would never hear it, but in my state of anxiety I would be checking it constantly.  When I breath in and breath out normally there is no abnormal sound, it is just when i force the exhale as far as I can that I hear the noise in the throat.  I had my yearly physical with my doctor which I was dreading, but I decided to just let him do his job, he listened with the stethoscope on 4 spots on my back which I assume are my lungs had my take a deep breath in and out each time, then listened on my front chest as I breathed normally, when I asked him about my lungs he said they sounded clear and fine.  I should have explained the throat noise when I exhale forcefully but out of fear or being embaressed I didn't mention it.  I did have bloodwork for my physical which he also said came back very good, and am going to an allergist in the coming weeks to get tested to see what i'm allergic to along with the cat allergy and come up with a game plane for treating them.