Insane chest irritation/tickle driving me crazy
Hi, my name is Nathan, I am a 41 year old male and new here.
For months now I have been having irritation in my chest which sometimes feels like an itch or a tickle, sometimes almost like a hairball is there. Also occasionally a feeling of "suffocation".
There is no pain, but the sensations are horrible and even keep me from sleeping properly.
I recently saw a respiratory physician who noticed slight wheezing and prescribed a Symbicort inhaler and peak flow meter. He also suggested a chest x-ray, which revealed small bilateral dark patches, which I think he said might be bronchiectasis but he is not sure so now I am awaiting a CT scan.
My peak flow over the past 2 weeks has ranged from 455 to 530 which is borderline low to normal. The inhaler has been no help so my physician told me not to continue with it.
Does anyone have any insight or advice? The CT scan is some way away and I am at my wits' end.
My pulmonologist suspected bronchiectasis for me as well (when my asthma didn’t respond significantly to Symbicort). I had high-res CT and it came back negative. Thankfully things have improved greatly over time. Why will it take so long for your CT scan?
Apparently staff are on leave and there's quite a backlog. Thanks for your reply - it is most encouraging. How did you cope when the inhaler didn't work? I get quite short of breath and it's uncomfortable.
I got my CT scan the next day … super easy. It was over in a minute, I didn’t have to change out of my street clothes, and commentary from the radiologist was emailed to me later that day. Sorry for the tangent, but I thought the CT process was kinda cool. My pulmonologist had me take 1200 mg of Mucinex twice daily, and I added NAC on my own. I exercised and cut back on dairy … been MUCH better the last month. Note though that the Symbicort did help my SOB and coughing, it did nothing to eliminate my sticky, debilitating phlegm.
Now I'm getting SOB, peak flow is 460 yet I can hardly breathe and the inhaler isn't helping 🙁
