Hospitalized for Asthma

Hi all, I am not new to HW but new to the asthma forum. I have had asthma for 9 years and only had to go to ER 2x for it and then after neb treatment and steroids was ok. On September 12th while traveling home from the EAST coast to midwest I ended up having an attack that sent me to the ER 800 miles from home in TN Pigeon Forge area. I spent 9 hours in ER with them trying to get it under control before they admitted me. I ended up staying until the 17th and the doc was reluctant to let me leave but the insurance pushed him. We both knew that 2 hours after a treatment I would have problems with breathing if I moved at all. He got me a portable nebulizer as I didn't even have any nebulizer before that as my pro air had always worked in the past. I had to take treatments every 4 hours all the way home and in between I would do the pro air. I saw my lung doc today and he wrote out a prescription for a nebulizer machine for me per my insurances request as they never want me with out one again. I have never had such a scary experience before. I am afraid to leave my home for longer than 2 hours after treatment as I know what is coming. I go back to work tomorrow and am really scared I'm going to have problems. Any triggers I come in contact with will send me into acute distress. I am not looking forward to dealing with that. I'm also worried because my doc lowered my steroids by 20mg for tomorrow and between those and the neb treatments they have kept me breathing. Any ideas on how to deal with all these new fears in my life? I already had enough things to deal with without my asthma getting this bad. I just want my life back the way it was. Barb

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My laundry list of diseases include, Ulcetive Colitis, GERD, Asthma, Alergies, CAD stent to LAD 1/4/05, Fibromyalgia, TMJ and a deteriorating disk in lower back and cysts on ovaries. Also chronic pain from a moped accident 11/9/07 which left me with back, hand, knee and foot problems. 

Nice to meet you, so very sorry you had to be hospitalized. It was very nice of that hospital doctor to give you a portable nebulizer.
What does you asthma/allergy doctor say was your trigger???cold air?? allergens??? There is a scarf you can buy from an allergy product
company that has a filter mask, which might help when you go outside...I see on your list you use benadryl, however, benadryl is not
a long acting allergy medicine and maybe you should ask your doctor about a long acting allergy medicine and maybe a change
from the advair as well, there are a lot of newer allergy meds and asthma meds that might be something to look into...
Hope this info helps and I really really hope your feeling better soon...
Lots of soft hugz...
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Barb)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

you might want to even consider going to a pulmologist ...

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* Asthma, Allergies, Osteoarthritis, Spinal Stenosis, Degenative Disc, Fibromyalgia, Gerd,
Enlarged Pituitary Gland, Sjogren's and Ocular Migraines

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I do have a pulmonoloigist and I saw him yesterday. He thinks it is still and infection in my lungs along with the allergy to the ragweed that had bloomed and all the poulution along the way in the cities. Well I am off to bed and hope I get some sleep with my new sleeping pill the doc gave me since I'm so wired from the treatments. Thanks for the info and encouragement. I take clairitin for allergies too. Barb

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My laundry list of diseases include, Ulcetive Colitis, GERD, Asthma, Alergies, CAD stent to LAD 1/4/05, Fibromyalgia, TMJ and a deteriorating disk in lower back and cysts on ovaries. Also chronic pain from a moped accident 11/9/07 which left me with back, hand, knee and foot problems. 

Oh wow, how scary for you! I can't imagine being sick and away from home like that. It seems to me that you may need to get on some stronger allergy meds to help prevent your allergies from triggering your asthma. In my opinion, Clariten is not a strong allergy med and to some completely useless. You can always ask your doc for Allegra or Zyrtec maybe in conjunction with Singulair (Singulair is an allergy AND asthma medication).

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I wish you a speedy recovery from this infection!
hugz
I do agree with Sherry though in that claritin is not as strong as other allergy medicines, a newer allergy medicine is
Xyzal which is in the same group as Zyrtec, but it's newer and works better...Singulair can help as well and these
are just friendly suggestions, so maybe ask your doctor about these and look into an allergy scarf, to filter out the allergens
like ragweed, that ragweed gets to me too, yuck!!! Hope this info helps and that your better soon!

don't forget the vitamin C
HUGZ

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Barb))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

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**********************************************
* Asthma, Allergies, Osteoarthritis, Spinal Stenosis, Degenative Disc, Fibromyalgia, Gerd,
Enlarged Pituitary Gland, Sjogren's and Ocular Migraines

********>^..^<********>^..^<********>^..^<********

Thanks for all the information and encouragement. I can't take allegra which did work for me because it causes severe low back pain from it. Yeah I know it's one of the remote side effects, but I'm weird that way and it took a while to figure out that was causing it. I have tried Zyrtek but because I took it at night because of drowsiness  it wasn't working as well by the morning when I really needed it. So my doc came up with the 2 10mg claritin in the am and then the benedryl at night too because it works different and it helps me sleep. I might try the singulair again just to see if it upsets my stomach as when they had tried it my stomach had already been really bad and had caused an asthma flair. Nothing like this one though. I do take vitamin C too. I'm also thinking of trying a natural product called asthma clear when I get some money to buy it that is. Oh well my sleeping pill is starting to kick in. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh another much needed night of sleep. Talk to you all later. Barb

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My laundry list of diseases include, Ulcetive Colitis, GERD, Asthma, Alergies, CAD stent to LAD 1/4/05, Fibromyalgia, TMJ and a deteriorating disk in lower back and cysts on ovaries. Also chronic pain from a moped accident 11/9/07 which left me with back, hand, knee and foot problems. 

Sorry to hear about your sufferings. I am an asthma patient and I can really understand the consequences of this nasty disease. How are you feeling now?

I'm still taking 3-4 neb treatments a day on top of the 500/50 advair. I can't exercise either. And if I move around and it's close to time for another treatment I start the coughing and wheezing. At least I'm not in the hospital or on oxygen any more. I'm still having a problem with incontinece when I cough too. I have a terrible feeling I did permanent damage to my bladder. It may have dropped or something since I had the hysterectomy this spring. Oh well just another problem to deal with. The breathing is the scariest though to deal with. Barb 

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My laundry list of diseases include, Ulcetive Colitis, GERD, Asthma, Alergies, CAD stent to LAD 1/4/05, Fibromyalgia, TMJ and a deteriorating disk in lower back and cysts on ovaries. Also chronic pain from a moped accident 11/9/07 which left me with back, hand, knee and foot problems.