Sport Induced Asthma

[bmccasland]

So what did the Doc say Caroline? Get you on some meds? Set you up for a breathing stress test? We want you to breathe and ride at the same time!

[Caroline]

Hi all

So I went to see the doc this morning and she prescribed me a sabutamol spray to take twice a day plus before I ride and in case of emergengy. I also have to go to the hospitakl to get further tests done in a few weeks. And I got some blood sample taken and sent to the lab. Irish health services are quite slow, so i am not really sure when I am getting sceduled for the breathing tests.
The doc said it looked like sports induced asthma.

[Kalidurga]

If that's the case, that's good as it's definitely treatable. I hope you see a big difference with the sabutamol.

[Photoflygirl]

I just went to the doctor for this last week. I could breathe fine during the ride, but when my heart rate got too high, I felt bad after the ride. My chest would feel kind of tingly really deep inside, I couldn't sleep on either side at night and it wasn't much better on my back. I never felt chest tightning or short of breath, just knew a weird feeling in my chest. Oh yes, and I would be extremely tired, which I thought was due to the new cycling routine. The doc did a breathing test and a chest x-ray, both of which turned out negative. She gave me Proventil and told me to take 2 puffs 20 minutes before cycling. She didn't say specifically I had EIA, but when I read the Proventil insert, I figured it out. Many, many athletes have this condition, and it is treatable with the right medication. I feel just fine after three rides since the dr. visit. I have never had asthma in my life, but my father and his sister had asthma. I have plenty of allergies. Hope this helps someone else out there!

[ClockworkOrange]

My new dr prescribed Singulair and it seems to work even better than Advair and without the annoying side effect of losing my voice.

This may not be relevant to you but when I visited my consultant last, he said I needed to use a spacer with my inhaler, as it was affecting my mouth and throat, yes I was talking with a very hoarsy voice. Also it gets more of the medicine into the lungs, I thought these were only for children but it does do the job.

A spacer is a chamber that can be attached to a metered-dose inhaler (MDI). The spacer chamber may have a one-way valve that allows the medication to be held in the chamber before it is inhaled. This way you can inhale the medicine in one or many breaths, depending on your ability. A spacer:
Helps prevent getting a yeast infection in your mouth (candidiasis) or making your voice sound hoarse (dysphonia).
Increases the amount of medicine delivered directly to your airways, even if you have difficulty using your inhaler.
Lessens the amount of medicine swallowed, which minimizes any side effects.

A spacer is recommended for use with most inhalers, especially those that contain corticosteroids. Spacers also should be used by children, who may have difficulty using a metered-dose inhaler correctly. Do not use a dry powder inhaler (DPI) with a spacer.

Clock

[slow+steady]

Mayanorange, your story sounds so much like mine! After reflecting on the nature of my breathing attacks, I decided they didn't fit the profile of either asthma or panic disorder and I knew the primary constriction was in my vocal cords, not my lungs, and associated with crying or feeling like crying.

Just a couple of days ago I did some web searching and found a lot of information on a condition whose most common name seems to be vocal cord dysfunction (VCD). It is often misdiagnosed as asthma, especially when exercise-induced or stress-induced, and many sufferers are young, female athletes under competitive pressure. I'm wondering whether the hormonal/emotional link could also make perimenopausal athletes (like me) susceptible to this condition.

Anyway, I could go on here, and there is also a reply in the "Injury--panic--asthma" thread that I didn't find until after I started to write this reply, but I think VCD is important enough to start a new thread in this forum and I'm about to do that, with some references I found. Hope to see some of you there!

Val