I just joined this board and thought I would take some time to introduce myself. I am an almost 38 year old mother of two (home schooling one of them) and I was diagnosed with Asthma last fall, around Thanksgiving. In July, I caught what I thought was a cold that never seemed to clear up and I finally made a Dr.'s appointment. My regular Dr. was not there and the Dr. that was subbing for her diagnosed me with bronchitis. He gave me the usual stuff to treat bronchitis, antibiotics and steriods and I sort of seemed to get better but not really. I just could not get my energy back. About a week and a half before thanks giving, on a Friday, I did not feel good wheezing and stuff, but I did not think a whole lot about it. By Saturday morning I had to get my husband to take me to the ER because I could not breath well, wheezing and chest tightness. The Dr. I saw there said it was another case of bronchitis. Again with the antibiotics and steriods and this time a breathing treatment. I seemed to do okay for a couple of days and I woke up on a Monday not feeling good, but I could not get in to see my Dr. until Thursday. I called her Monday evening with the same symptoms and she told me to go to the emergency room. This Dr. gave me another breathing treatment, increased my steriods, added another antibiotic and orders for me to get a nebulizer for my house, and almost put me in the hospital, but since I had an appointment with my Dr. on Thursday he did not. I was sort of fine Tuesday but by Wednesday night I was experiencing the same symptoms again, if anything they were worse. I saw my Dr. on Thursday and she took one look at me and told me I needed to go to the hospital. So I spent the night in the hospital hooked up to an IV for steriods and breathing treatments and etc. I was also told I needed to see a pulminologist. They still were not quite sure if it was Asthma or Asthmatic Bronchitis. I also have restless leg syndrome (RLS) so all the things that I was being given to make me breath better were causing my RLS symptoms to be out of control. My Dr. had me get an echocardiogram to make sure it was not a heart problem that was causing the breathing problems, and it was not. After I got out of the hospital I made an appointment with a pulminologist that my Grandmother, Father, and Mother use. He also specializes in sleep disorders and treats my mother for her severe RLS. So he has put me on singular, asmanex (huge doses), pepcid, a couple of rescue inhalers. Orginally, when I got out of the hospital I was on advair, but I had some serious reactions to it. I was so shaky. I was like a little old lady I was so shaky, muscle cramps, blurred vision, swelling, and it made my RLS horrible. So that is why I am on asmanex now. He has sent me for one sleep study. Apparantly, he thinks I have sleep apnea and he believes that the changes in breathing with sleep apnea can trigger asthma attacks. I have to have another one in a month. He has been very good, since he knows what asthma medications can make my RLS worse he has uped my RLS meds to help me acheive a balance. So the last time I saw him he said all my test results showed that I had typical asthma results and that I had severe Asthma. He is thinking that I have always had mild asthma and that the few times when I was a child or a younger adult when I had bronchitis that it was really an asthma attack and since I had no medical history no one thought to treat me for it. And back in July when I had bronchitis it was a more severe asthma attack and it just kept getting worse until I ended up in the hospital. So now I am trying to cope with finding out I have severe Asthma. It has been hard. I do not feel like I have enough energy most of the time, I worry about an attack and just feel like my life has drastically changed. I am sure there will come a time when I feel better, and don't worry so much but for now I am just trying to get through each day. Some days are better than others, some not so good. I have to use completly different cleaning products, teach my daughter around my bad days, I have had to pull back from some of my activities, and my oldest child is 17 and looking and looking at colleges and scholarships and I have not been able to help him out the way he wants. I am tired of Dr. appointments, reactions to medications (beside the Advair reaction, I developed thrush from all the steriods), having to stay away from anyone with any kind of illness because of having a low immune system from all the steriods. Yes I know I am whining, but I am struggling to take all of this in.

Melissa