please forgive me as this post may a bit long. but i'm in need of some serious advice.. never been in this situation before. all my life i've had breathing problems. just a general shortness of breath even while barely moving or not moving at all. a couple of years ago, i had an "episode" at work that scared the crap out of me (i was standing there doing nothing when i suddenly couldn't breath and this went on for about half an hour) so my brother came and took me to an urgent care place. there the doc didn't do a single test and passed it off as a panic attack. as soon as he heard i hate past anxiety issues, that was his assumption. though i have had past anxiety, (i'm afraid of flying and got sick before getting on the plane, type stuff) i've long since learned how to deal and don't have any issues with it anymore. since then i've just not really paid much attention i suppose to the breathing thing, thinking it was normal. (even though i've had other episodes and people around me are really concerned) friday night i was woken up in a dead sleep, not being able to breathe and it felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. i didn't panic, just laid there and tried to coach myself through it but my heart kept beating really hard and i couldn't catch my breath. i started yawning about every 5 seconds and this went on for about 10 or 15 minutes. so i went to the ER where they did a chest xray, blood work, and breathing treatment. all the tests came back normal and they had been monitoring the oxygen in my blood (which was 98 the entire time except when it went down to 88 once and then slowly went back up). i saw the doc for all of 5 seconds, who didn't explain a thing to me and sent in a nurse to tell me i had a "bronchospasm" and they were giving me an inhaler.

now. i have little faith in modern medicine because of past experience and this didn't help. nobody told me anything about any possible underlying cause. i came home and looked it up for hours. every symptom i have is linked to asthma. i guess i'm confused as to why they would give me an inhaler and never so much as mention the word asthma or even tell me i really needed to follow up with a doctor to see what the cause was. on top of everything, he prescribed me ventolin HFA which is the second most expensive version of albuterol.. which he could have given me and would have done the same thing.

i don't have health insurance, which makes this all very difficult. but right now i'm supposed to be taking 2 puffs every 4 hours. which seems weird to me since its a rescue inhaler. i don't know what to do. i've read more about medical issues and medicine in the last 3 days than i thought i ever needed to know.

Help??

Unfortunately, the ER is not a very good place to get tested for asthma and to work with a doctor to find a plan to manage your asthma - they tend to focus on resolving your immediate symptoms, and it sounds like you've had a long term problem that is flaring up.

Based on your description it does sound like asthma so you probably need to figure out a way to see a pulmonologist to get tested and get a long-term asthma management plan.

Usually an asthma management plan will include a long-acting inhaler (like Flovent) so that you're only using the Ventolin when you have a flare up.

One note on the albuterol vs. ventolin, because of changes required for environmental reasons, all of the inhalers have had to switch their propellants to HFA so there aren't really any less expensive alternatives (you might check out the "Lower cost/generic asthma meds?" thread on this board for a discussion of this question).

The other question you should consider is what triggers your asthma? The two most common triggers seem to be allergies and acid reflux. For most people getting their asthma triggers under control can make managing their asthma much easier (and both allergies and acid reflux can usually be controlled with less expensive over-the-counter medications).