Likely Severe Asthma

Hello, everyone, it's Thyme. I hope you're doing well. I'm doing the best I can. I'm honestly going through a bit of a realization. I've probably been dealing with severe asthma this whole time. Unfortunately, most of my doctors were not very helpful until this year when I saw the ENT for my allergy shots. I know self-diagnosis is frowned upon, but when professionals misdiagnose you, ignore your condition, or don't clearly define where you fall on the severity spectrum, you kind of have to do most of the detective work yourself.

Misdiagnosis affected my health as a child

I've mentioned a few times that my childhood asthma was silent asthma that went undiagnosed until I was 15 years old. Because it was silent, my pediatricians at the time never heard me wheezing, and simply dismissed me and my asthma symptoms as simply very bad allergies. Though, the Zyrtec and Flonase didn't stop me from having severely decreased lung capacity, making it nearly impossible to talk to my family, friends, and classmates without my lungs giving up on me and needing to pause to catch my breath before and after I uttered a sentence to someone. People always thought I was upset at them since I was sighing so much.

I've had sinus infections 2-3 times a year that took weeks to recover from and countless antibiotics, all dismissed as only being allergies and nothing more. Even though I've always experienced asthma symptoms, most evident when I start running. I could not run or even lightly jog without getting severe attacks, tasting blood, running with two longswords impaled into each lung, chest tightness like sudden cardiac arrest, nearly fainting, seeing black stars, and only keeping my balance running while gradually getting much worse, and feeling I needed immediate medical attention afterwards, but couldn't ask for it because I was not diagnosed with asthma and could not describe the attack as a child. Even though I've spent months running in my school's summer gym, every body part was improving except for my lungs. You can only exercise with the right asthma treatment, which I've gotten too little too late.

Finally getting an asthma diagnosis

It wasn't until I got a chronic cough that the doctors could hear me wheezing that they realized I had asthma. They started me off with ProAir which didn't help much, until putting me on Flovent, which helped a little, but I was still coughing, and I got a severe asthma attack at 16 that sent me to the hospital. I was using the hospital's nebulizer and 5 days of prednisone. I eventually got better after 6 months, in June of 2019, right before COVID started.

Reevaluating my asthma treatment

Eventually the Flovent wasn't enough as I was still having severely decreased lung capacity and waking up with asthma attacks. I saw the pulmonologist for the first time and got a nebulizer of my own with Singulair on top of it. These helped, until I got a more severe attack that made me miss my cousin's wedding and would not end with Albuterol, Flovent, Singulair, Zyrtec, Flonase, or tea, or caffeine, until I gargled with salt water.

Then I was prescribed BREO 100/25mcg, which initially helped, but for some reason, (I don't know if it was because of my job or my allergies or exercise) I still needed my rescue inhaler every other day. I voiced my concerns to the pulmonologist that I may have severe asthma, but she just cheerfully said, "it's not severe at all!" Even though, despite me taking the BREO as directed with 1 to 2 pills of Singulair and the nebulizer, I still needed my rescue inhaler often, every other day, and my pulmonologist only considered me barely passing the PFT test as "good" while my daily symptoms said otherwise, and only asks me very vague general questions about my asthma one would expect from a GP.

Do I have severe asthma?

Finally I am at the ENT and they not only give me the PFT but also an asthma control questionnaire, which indicated despite my dose of Breo at the time, I was still uncontrolled, even though the environment at work and home were about the same, not ideal for asthma. I was a little worried when they gave me BREO 200/25mcg to take with my Singulair, and the allergist finger quoted that I was "moderate" but I was using albuterol too often, and they were aware of patients feeling the need to downplay the severity of asthma. So, I think it's likely I have severe asthma if I take a high dose of BREO with Singulair on top of it and still end up needing my rescue inhaler though rarely, and if I barely get through work without having to take a multitude of short breaks when no one is looking. I'm taking a shot in the dark and calling a spade a spade: I deal with severe asthma; it was just misdiagnosed for a long time.

Fortunately, it's not so severe that I can't keep a job, but it is severe enough to interfere with many aspects of my life such as simply talking to people, exercising, spending time with my family, and... I don't even go outside until the fall and winter months. I do feel a lot better with my current dose of BREO, even if I may need my rescue inhaler 3 times a month despite it, but estimating the severity for me has significantly helped me manage it a lot better. Thank you for taking the time to read this, it means the world to me!

-Thyme