What Causes Crackles That Doctors Can’t Hear?
I’m a 42-year-old lifelong asthmatic with asthma exacerbated mostly by allergies but other triggers as well (e.g. animal dander, dust mite, wood smoke, viral, etc. However, in the past year I’ve noticed a new sound in my breathing that I haven’t noticed before. I'm on Breo Ellipta.
When I breathe in (when asthma is not exacerbated) I have one or two crackles breathing in and the same breathing out. There tends to be more when breathing in. When my asthma is exacerbated the crackles increase, always more breathing in.
Appointments, tests, and tricky sounds
I’ve spoken to my General Practitioner indicating these noises keep me awake at night and are quite noisy when laying down. I’ve also told my respiratory specialist - both doctors couldn’t hear it in my lungs upon examination. When I went to see both docs, the asthma wasn’t as bad. It’s been tricky during this period for them to listen when it’s exacerbated as appointments in person are harder to get. I recorded the sounds and my specialist said he didn’t know what they were.
This was after a bronchoscopy in March as I’d had 4 months of uncontrolled asthma. I was on Ventolin most days and had 4 short courses of prednisone. Apparently it was a bad pollen spring here in Australia and then we had the bushfires which affected me greatly.
What are these sounds?
I guess I’m reaching out to find anyone with similar sounds to understand what they are. I’ve had them since September last year and am getting very frustrated I can’t get to the bottom of this issue! Why can’t my docs hear them? I can hear them lying down at night but they are there during the day - just not as pronounced sitting/standing.
How do I get rid of them? I’m also happy to send sound files if anyone wants to listen!
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