I have asthma and I have since I've been 4, so about 12 years. I hardly ever wheeze; just dry coughing (sometimes with mucus when I get sinus infections), VERY difficult breathing and a struggle to breathe, and I get absolutely exhausted from breathing. -- This time though, I AM wheezing more than I ever have. I'm also very pale and have dark, sunken-in eyes. My chest aches both from the coughing and from having to physically struggle so hard to take a breath in. I can't even say more than 3 words at a time because I'm so out of breath. You know when your neck like gets sucked into that little divot in your collar bone and your entire stomach and chest are rapidly moving to breathe? Well, I have that happening, and I told the covering physician via the night nurse (this was last night), and the doctor called in Medrol and said to "wait it out at home." WHAT?! Medrol is NOT fast acting, and I can't breathe NOW. After waiting like 2 hours, I went into the ER. They gave me 4 back-to-back neb treatments of Albuterol/Atrovent with oxygen and Prednisone. The only thing that helped was the coughing, but I still felt like I couldn't take a deep breath in and I was tired of breathing. I was extremely disappointed with the fact that they discharged me, even after I explained how I felt, but I think this is why: The doctor that had been treating me (an attending) had her shift end (she said that she might admit me when I first got in there), so a RESIDENT took over. He was the rudest doctor I had ever met in my life, completely unqualified, and told me that I just had a cough, not even asthma. I was completely fed up and exhausted, so I just left without a fight. I'm currently on Allegra-D, Flovent 330 mcg 2X daily, Biaxin 500 mg 2X daily, Xopenex every 4 hrs., and Medrol DosePack. If all this isn't helping, shouldn't I be admitted to the hospital or something? I think I have reached the peak of what I can do at home, right? I have an appointment with my regular doctor tomorrow, and he's very thorough and quick to resolve my asthma problems (i.e. if 2 days of nebs and a higher dose of Flovent are not working, even without wheezing, he puts me on steroids, and tells me to do very frequent nebulizer treatments [every 2.5-3 hrs] before it gets worse). What do you think might happen as far as treatment goes? Thank you very much!