Hi there. I'm not quite sure if I'm posting this in the right area, but if I don't, I hope some kind mod will move it for me.

I wanted to ask those of you who suffer from allergy-induced asthma, what does it feel like? What is the worst part? Does it always come whenever you're exposed to the allergens?

My reason for asking is that I'm writing a story (non-fetish, but hey, it's very much a fetish story nevertheless...) in which the main character suffers from hayfever and asthma. It's kind of hard to know how to decribe an asthma attack if you don't know what it feels like...

I'm very grateful for all help.

Eek...

First of all I'm going to start by explaining that I have something called "cough-variant" asthma which means my asthma attacks (massive coughing fits with no air intake) tend not to resemble the traditional asthma attack (gasping for breath) but am happy to share my own experiences

Second, I think the best way of explaining would be to give you a couple of recent examples as it's kind of hard to just explain what it feels like...

1) The week before Christmas I was at my mother in laws and while we were talking I was curled up on the couch with her cat on my lap. Now on the whole I felt fine, but after about forty minutes my allergy decided to kick in and I broke out in a histamine rash across my chest and my wrists. About ten minutes after the itchy red flush had made it's presence, I started coughing, my eyes started itching slightly and, unusually for me, I developed an audible wheeze. At this stage the cat was lifted from my lap, much to the displeasure of her claws, whilst I went and got my inhaler from my jacket pocket before the attack fully hit.

2) Last year I had the flu and one of the side effects was that my lung capacity was reduced by about 40% which was lots of fun as I developed that fantastic asthmatic breathing pattern of very rapid and very shallow breaths. Anyway, at one point during the recovery I made the mistake of watching a comedy, which as well as being funny, resulted in me laughing my way into a huge asthma (coughing) attack that managed to turn me bright red but a sickly shade of white all at the same time. I also managed to pull several of my intercostal muscles during the attack which meant that for the next week I felt lousy every time I stretched, coughed or sneezed... oh the joys!

3) I am violently allergic to pistachio nuts. The reaction hasn't yet headed in the direction of full blown anaphylactic shock, but within seconds of eating them, I break out in a histamine rash that stretches up from my chest to my neck, my eyes itch, my nose starts running, my chest tightens and withing minutes I start violently coughing. The last time it happened came after eating something that I wasn't aware of containing pistachios and the violence of the coughing actually managed to scare the hell out of my partner who although he has seen me have numerous attacks had never seen me have to use the inhaler three times over the space of thirty minutes to bring the attack under full control.... bless him.


On a related note, the type of asthma I have means I cannot use aerosol based inhalers as they will actually make an attack worse so my inhalers are all powder based and breath activated. I also have to say there is nothing nicer than the feeling of being able to breathe after inhaling salbutamol!

I'm more of a cough-variant type asthmatic as well.

What does it feel like? A couple of different symptoms: Feeling like my chest is very constricted (some people say, "like an elephant sitting on your chest"), having to take deep sighing breaths and never feeling like I'm getting enough air, and this makes me tired and worn out and crabby. That usually happens to me a lot in the late summer, when mold is high.

Annoying coughing that will last forever unless I take a couple of puffs of my quick relief inhaler. This usually occurs to me whenever I: get around dust (including evil paper dust) or mold (even the slightest bit), am out in the cold, laugh too hard (which really sucks, let me tell you), wear perfume, am around smoke (cigarette, fireplace or even candles & incense). I also tend to cough during or after exercise sometimes, particularly after skiing. I really cough way too much.

Wheezing (usually along with coughing), which for me only occurs nowdays after a serious cold or flu.

The worst part is all the crappy rules for my life, such as: taking several meds daily (and the expense and hassle of that); avoiding allergens and irritants; trying to avoid sick people and when I get sick, increasing my meds to try to avoid evil prednisone; pretreating (taking my inhaler) before exercise or before going to a comedy club or funny play or movie; not being able to wear perfume or use anything scented at all, ever; being careful about restaurants or bars where people are smoking. Oh yeah, and trying to avoid stress and anxiety, which makes my asthma much worse.

All those rules make it hard to be carefree about my life like most people are. I've become a little neurotic, and I hate that.

Let's see, last question, does it always come when exposed to allergens? I'd have to say yes, to some extent, although
the symptoms tend to vary a lot and are unpredictable. Mold and paper dust are the worst and will get me coughing and wheezing every time, which makes it hard to clean up old papers.

This sounds like a lot of whining, which I'm sorry for -- it's actually not that bad, I'm fine a lot of the time, but still I bridle at all of the rules and restrictions.

It feels like your chest has a balloon within it and it reaches to your shoulder tips. It hurts as it expands and contracts.

Ive had this type of asthma for a while and it sucks =[

Trillium, I can completely sympathise as pre-dosing with inhalers prior to seeing a comedian is an absolute must, and actually laughing turning into asthma induced coughing is always one of the first signs that I need to adjust my meds. I had also completely forgotten about that first hit of icy cold air on your lungs and the immediate spasming effect that it has.

I have to say though, as much as cigarette smoke really irritates me, the best thing that they did in the UK was to ban smoking in public places.... it means that I can now go out for a drink without having to take the inhaler first and make sure I have the inhaler with me at all times! God I hate cigarette smoke... even walking behind a smoker results in me coughing and I'm not actually doing it to make a point!

Thank you so much, your replies were really helpful.




It doesn't sound like a lot of whining to me. It sounds horrible, and frightening too. As much as I love sneezing and hayfever-related stuff, I would not wish asthma upon anyone.

I have the 'traditional' asthma, and for me is brought on by allergies, sickness and "extensive exercise". I've had it since I was 5, so about 15 years.

Allergy asthma...:
I wanted to ask those of you who suffer from allergy-induced asthma, what does it feel like?
Crap. Seriously, though, it's like someone is sitting on your chest... More specifically, it's like your lungs are expanding, but nothing's filling them. And they feel like they're only expanding half way what they're supposed to....

What is the worst part?
The worst part...Well, sometimes, with allergies or illness, it gets to where using the inhaler won't help any longer than 5 minutes, if that much. I have to use a nebulizer/breathing machine, which makes me feel weak/sick/shaky... it sucks...
And the not being able to lay down...that's no fun either.

Does it always come whenever you're exposed to the allergens?
Hm... I think so. What's kind of funny (in a bad sort of way) is that when I sneeze a bunch, I get an attack, from the physical exertion of a fit.

I have "cough-variant" allergy-induced asthma too-- I've never known anyone else who had it before! it went undiagnosed for years (or I should say, mis-diagnosed as "chronic bronchitis" and treated w/ antibiotics) because no one seemed to REALIZE that persistent coughing without wheezing could be asthma; so I didn't get diagnosed until I was in college. lucky for me it's fairly mild, in the sense that I almost never feel like I literally can't breathe, but like others, if I go off my meds life immediately begins to suck. when I was in junior high & high school, I woke up coughing nearly every night. habitually not getting enough sleep means your immune system is strained, which coupled w/ a crappy respiratory system means lots more colds/flus/infections, and longer to get rid of them. and my main allergy is dust mites, which are friggin everywhere and aren't seasonal, so it's hard to escape. but once I got to college and got diagnosed and got medicated, all was well. now I only have problems in winter, because the air is so dry, but as long as I keep a humidifier by my bed (which, yes, is somewhat annoying; but far less so than waking up coughing when I want to be asleep) everything is basically cool. plus I have a rescue inhaler for those increasingly rare times when it still does break through.


I never had that chest-tightness that others here are describing; and exercise, laughing, yatta yatta, is no problem for me. how it feels when I can't stop coughing is more like I'm being poked inside my throat-- it's just reflex to cough, I can't not. it's not scary, it's just annoying. especially when it wakes you up.

True for me, except it can happen to me if I sneeze just ONCE. I'd rather sneeze a million times and not have the asthma afterwards.

Oh, and three more triggers I thought of: lack of sleep (such as today, for example), and "that time of the month" (although for me, birth control pills help a lot with that). And acid reflux.

Really, managing asthma takes an enormous amount of mental energy. I hate that. I'd rather be thinking of rainbows and ponies. . . .




Mod Note: Merged posts ~Mute

I think the fact that it is so often misdiagnosed tends to help that fact... of all the asthmatics I know in real life I'm the only one with "cough-variant" asthma and it's actually not very well understood. For example, I've actually had a friend ask me if it is "genuinely" asthma, despite the fact that once I start having an attack the only thing that can bring it under control is to use a reliever inhaler to calm my inflamed airways! I have also noticed that it is almost guaranteed that if I get a really bad cold or the flu that I will end up on antibiotics as although I am constantly coughing and having trouble breathing, the violent coughing isn't actually productive enough to clear the crap in my lungs. And, god do I hate that post-viral cough... with me it can last up to eight weeks... it's not good!

Yes.

I don't have much new to add to this discussion. It feels tight, and exhausting. You have to really focus on breathing calmly, emptying your lungs all the way, then breathing in slowly through your nose, and you can never quite get enough air. Very frustrating, and usually I'm around other people and trying not to make a scene/figuring out how to surreptitiously take a puff...

Ok delurking to ask a couple of quick questions. Since a few people have mentioned cough-variant asthma I figured this was as good a place as any to ask it. For the past few years I had a chronic cough that seemed to be seasonal, it would be bad in the spring, get a little bit better in the summer, worse again in the fall and go away during the winter. Over the past year it seemed to follow that pattern expect that it didn't get get better in the wintertime and went straight on through the winter into this spring. I'd been to see my primary doctor a couple of times about it and she didn't know what it was. I had also seen an allergist and an infectious disease specialist and they couldn't give me any answers either. Finally I went to see an ENT last week and he thought that it could be cough-variant asthma. He gave me some samples of Singulair and we set up a follow up appointment for next month. The medicine hasn't done anything for me yet but I've only been on it for a couple of days.

Ok now on to the actual questions part. Do those of you with this type of asthma ever find that cough drops will help get your coughing under control? I mean I know that cough drops are supposed to help with a cough, but it seems odd to me that they would help a cough that was caused by asthma, and yet cough drops are usually pretty good at helping my cough.

Also, do you ever find that your cough gets better when you lie down? I've always heard that most causes of cough including asthma get worse when you lie down, but for me it's the complete opposite and my doctors are a bit baffled by this.

Wow! That is baffling!
I hope the docs can figure it out for you!

I get cough-variant asthma too. Lying down is definitely worse!
I haven't tried cough drops for it, but I doubt it would work, cos they're more for the throat I think.

There's Vocal Cord Dysfunction. Which can act like asthma. I think it can be triggered by seasonal allergies too.
I don't know a great deal about it though....just a thought ^^;

Wow, now that's one I've never heard of before. I'll have to look into this vocal chord dysfunction and mention it to my doctor if the meds don't start helping me.

One thing to note: for some reason, there are some people who do not respond to Singulair, so keep that in mind.

One other thing: from my reading, the 3 most common reasons for chronic cough in adults are post-nasal drip, asthma, and acid reflux.

Cough drops have no effect on my coughing from asthma. I don't notice any difference when lying down.

Hope these thoughts help, and good luck getting to the bottom of this. I'm sure it's really annoying to be coughing that much.

Well based on the responses so far, I probably should've told my ENT about the cough drops but it slipped my mind at the appointment. I did tell him how it got better lying down though. If the Singulair doesn't start helping after a week I'll probably call him to let him know and I'll try to remember to mention the cough drops then.

I do get post nasal drip a lot, but it doesn't always coincide with the coughing. I do get heartburn/acid reflux on occasion but often enough to account for the coughing. I've always been told by my doctors that these causes of cough would, if anything, get worse when lying down, but not better.

Anyway thanks for the feedback, it's certainly all stuff to keep in mind