OK i hope someone reads this soon but I just got home from an amazinggggg concert. BUT as we were leaving i discovered what was floating in the air wasn't that smoke stuff their spray out. It was the dust from the GYPROC on the floors. Which as we know--often contains flour. Not only that, i am quite allergic to any dusts related to construction (even sawdust).
Just got back to apartment and I'm having an asthma attack...i'm TRYING to natural way which is breathing in hot steam, but if you heard my wheeze it would sound like I'm dying and I feel faint...

Please someone helpp or give me there luck. I've never really had an attack this bad before

~ Lisa ~

Do you not have a salbutamol inhaler for emergency situations? Also, if you have an epi-pen, use it if it gets really bad. It is a little known fact that epinephrine stops an asthma attack cold (that is what they use in Germany if somebody has a bad asthma attack - nobody dies of asthma attacks there!).

Do you have benadryl around? See if it helps, it might.

Also, if you feel like you are going to pass out, call an ambulance, or if you have a ride, get to the nearest hospital

umm all i have for fast-acting is ventolin and i've taken that few times. the breathing team helped control the wheezing a bit but i still feel like i'm going to faint and throat still feels shut. I dont have any benadryl and no epi-pen either --where do you find that, anyways? or i should say how do you get one??

~ Lisa ~

salbutamol is the ingredient, the brand name is ventolin (I just get the generic one, it is cheaper and the same thing). That isn't good, that it won't help.

You can ask your doctor to prescribe an epi-pen. In my opinion all asthmatics should have one for emergencies (not even doctors know that, of course, they aren't taught to prescribe them, because they are expensive, about $100.00 each). But on the manual it says to use them in an asthma emergency (of course, I knew that already, being from Germany).

Do you have any anti-histamines in the house? Taking those might help. If it doesn't get better soon you better get yourself to the hospital emergency. You don't fool with breathing! If you stop breathing, you die. Don't let it get to that.

Try some breathing exercises. Breathe in through your nose to the count of five, and breathe out forcefully to the count of five, with your lips pursed (like you are going to whistle). Do that for a while (but not until you hyperventilate).

With asthma the problem is not that you can't breathe in, but rather, that you can't breathe the stale air out. If your lungs are filled with stale air, you can't get clean air in.

So, this exercise will force the stale air out. It usually works for me. Try using the ventolin again after you have done this exercise, as then it might do some good.

OK thank you for the suggestion. I tried again breathing in hot steam, was told by an old friend thats what his mom (who a homecare nurse) got him to do to control his asthma.

If the epi-pens are only $100 that wouldnt cost too much. Because the drug plan is based on how much you use it the plan, since Jan. 1 i only pay 19% or the price. But maybe for my luck it would be one of those not included on the plan!

I'm going to try sleep. If i pass out i may as well do it on my pillow. I'll keep my laptop out tho so if I cant sleep or if I get worse I'll quickly post about it.

I hate asthma....my guesss is that since at my appointment it showed my breathing level was almost cut in half that would be why i had this attack!

~ Lisa ~

Lisa, it is 3:22 AM here, I stayed up to help you. But I am going to bed now. So, posting won't help, I won't be around, and there is a good chance others won't be, either.

Do you have any peppermint oil around, or what is that menthol stuff you put on your chest with congestion (can't think of the name)? Put some of that into boiling water, put a towel over your head and breathe it in. It will really sting and make your nose run, as well as make you cough. But it will get the mucus out of your lungs.

It is a bad sign that your ventolin inhaler won't work. That means your asthma is NOT under control and you could have a deadly attack. I almost died once because I let it get that bad (and then I didn't have an epi-pen, either).

You need to go see your doctor next week.

Mind you, I didn't get better back then until I did breathing exercises every day. They got me where I am now, where I rarely get asthma at all.

Go to your library and see if they have a book called "How to become a former asthmatic". I can't remember the name of the author. The book is long out of print, so you can't find it to buy. But maybe you can still find it in your library. That is where I found it 14 years ago when my asthma was so bad, and the doctors where no help.

I did those exercises religiously for several months, and the results were astonishing.

Edit: I checked Amazon for the book. You can get it again! Strangely, in Canada from Amazon you can't get it for under $54.00. But from the US you can get it for $11.00. I can't put a link in here, because they tried to spam the board, and Scott makes their links to come up unusable. So, put into Amazon dot com (it came up as Lame Advertisement, Ha!) "How to become a former asthmatic", the book's author is Paul Sorvino.

I think it is a must-have book for every asthmatic. If I had known it is back in print, I would have bought one long ago and promoted it extensively to everybody I know with asthma.

I know this is several hours later and I hope you are doing well now but in case you're not or in case there's a next time here's a very simple remedy to try: Put a pinch of salt in your tongue and drink TWO glasses of water right away and then relax. This is from the book "Your Body's Many Cries For Water" and you can read more at http://newconnexion.net/article/07-01/asthma.html and http://www.watercure2.com.

Lisa I hope you are feeling better and I hope you got yourself to the ER. With asthma you should use some common sense and if you can't breathe the hospital is the place to go. I hope you went.

Lisa, how are you now? I hope you got better or went to the ER (even though the ER is often not much help, at least being in a hospital might be safer than at home when you can't breathe).

I think taking my Advair and Singulair was some relief. I eventually fell asleep only because I was sooo exhaustedi think i just passed out...

If you read my post about "interesting asthma checkup" you would have read that apparently my asthma has worsened (4.0 down to 2.7) and i'm awaiting my appointment to do the same type of test at the hospital just to make sure it wasnt a glitch.

~ Lisa ~

Hi Lisa, I am sure glad you made it through the night! Seriously, you sound like you need some help getting your asthma under control. I ordered that book last night and I urge you to get it as well.

Those exercises will over time make your asthma medications practically obsolete! I can pretty much guarantee that they will help a lot.

I find that asthma meds have a ton of side effects (I get at least 20 from the Ventolin) and I use the inhaler only when I absolutely need to (which is about once every two months now). I had a time when I used it several times a day, and it hardly did any good at all. That is a dangerous place to be, believe me.

My doctors were clueless. I even went to the ER once, they treated me and sent me home. Two days later I almost went into respiratory arrest, and fortunately for me, there was actually a doctor there who knew what he was doing, and he saved my life.

if one dose of your rescue meds don't help, a second dose - two hours or so later - is generally what docs recommend. as your asthma has worsened, I would hope that you're on some sort of daily treatment that (like advair or singular - it sounds like you have them, but do you take them regularly?), until you improve? if you find that you have a severe attack where you cannot breath, you need to go to the ER so that they can treat you with more aggressive medications there.

if you can (I don't know how it works where you are), see if you can get in to see a dedicated allergist/immunologist who regularly treats asthma patients. it will be much more effective than a regular internist.

(I know lots of people don't like most 'western meds', but they are the best way to deal with asthma that is not being controlled through non-medication means.)

I do take them regularly - 2 puffs of advair, morning and night, Singulair every night...would an asthma specialist be the same as an dedicated allergist?? His card says Internal Medicine and Respirology...I've never heard of anything else in this province.
I just hope I dont have too many more attacks like this...if I do have another, next time I'm not going to try nurse it on my own and will just go to ER about it. Even though I wait 8+ hours to be seen for a gallbladder/crohn's attack I highly doubt they'll make me wait that long with an asthma attack --- at least they BETTER not!

~ Lisa ~

I don't know if it's the same. In the US, I'd say to look for someone who was a member of the American Association of Allergists and Immunologists. I can't quite find the analogy in Canada. I'd think a respirologist would be appropriate, but it seems like your asthma is still not under control...

Yeah me and him both know that, thats why i'm waiting to find out when I go for tests at the hospital. I dont expect that to be anytime soon

~ Lisa ~

How about a Pulminologist?

My kids have asthma, I carry epi pens. Of course, 2 of the three have serious food allergies as well. I get 2 epi pens for $25.00 with my insurance, and they are refilled as often as we need them, which thankfully.... is never.

Your post scares me, as the mom of asthmatics. I hope and pray that I've taught my children what to do in the event of an emergency when I'm not around.

From the sound of your post, I don't think you have anything to worry about. You obviously take asthma seriously and your kids will pick up on the idea that asthma is not something to take lightly or be flip about. This was my parents' attitude with me and my brother when we were growing up with asthma and the two of now live on our own (both still asthmatic but well controlled) and we maintain the attitude the our parents conveyed.

Thank you for the vote of confidence! We take our kids to an Asthma Education conference every year. Even if they hear the same things, over and over, year after year, I figure it'll be ingrained in their brains enough to know just how serious it can be. My oldest son nearly died of an asthma episode when he was in kindergarten. Previous to that... we didn't even know he HAD asthma. It was one of the scariest things I've EVER experienced.

He goes to the Asthma & Allergy Foundations Asthma camp every summer! Eventually, my daughter will be old enough to attend, she's been looking forward to it for years!