Specialist visit

[Sandra]

Hi all, am off to see a resperologist tomorrow. My breathing has been an on again off again issue. Heavy, painful chest worse at night and hidious fatigue, shortness of breath, and lethargy. My gp suspected athsma but I cannot be tested because i must take prednisone daily which would ruin the test.
Whe i have a bad flare of dryness; no idea where they come from as I work real hard to keep hydrated, but when it happens I get very thick/sticky mucousy in my throat and upper respiratory area and sometimes I can hear the crackles in my ears when i breath. I have only puffers and don't really know when to use them, until I just can't breath I guess and not sure they help all that much. During this time I also almost constantly have bleeding in my nose.
I sure hope I can expalin this to him tomorrow in a way that he can get something from. I mostly need to know when to seek medical help. Often My gp just ignore's it or gives me nose spray. i don't really thing that's enough during these bad times. What whould you ask? thanks Sandra

[Scottietottie]

Hi Sandra 

I'd write it down. When I go to see someone I tend to forget to do what I planned to do and I've found that writing questions before hand helps. Write out a list of your main symptoms especially the ones relevant to his speciality and then write a list of questions and ask him if its OK to work through them with him. I'm sure it will be.

Obviously if any other questions come up in the course of the consultation so much the better.

(I'd take a pen and note his answers down too so you can mull over them at your leisure!)

Good luck with the appointment. Hopefully he'll pay a lot more attention than your GP. let us know how it goes.

Take care - Scottie 

[Katybarstool]

Hii Sandra

Just thought you might like to look at the explanation of how to take inhalers. You can do this by googling asthma uk and looking through their pages. Good luck for tomorrow.

Kathy

[Pooh]

Good luck tomorrow Sandra, let us know how the appointment goes.  Hang in there and don't forget to tell them EVERYTHING.  Like Scottie suggested, write it down.  (but take the list with you, don't leave it on the kitchen counter like I do. )

Hugs, Pooh

[eyeamdry]

My gp suspected athsma but I cannot be tested because i must take prednisone daily which would ruin the test.

Curious as to why prednisone would ruin the breathing test.  Is it (maybe) because the pred makes breathing easier and it wouldn't be a true read while using it?  Lucy

[Linda196]

Sandra, I wondered about the Prednisone contraindication, too, so I checked with a friend of mine who is a respiratory therapist.

I was told that, while the tests would be inconclusive in someone taking a "burst and taper" dose, or a short term dose, there shouldn't be any problem for someone taking a consistant daily dose for corticosteroid replacement. Because a person taking Prednisone for Addison's disease is only replacing the adrenalin that their adrenal glands are failing to produce, it would take additional Prednisone to effect the lungs.

It may be necessary to have a minimum of two tests done, a "baseline" when you are feeling well, to see what your normal condition is with the steroid, and either one with an acute episode of lung problems, or one with some "stimulus" that would mimic asthma.

[Skylar]

Scottie, that is excellent advice.

Sandra, I hope your appointment goes well.

Skylar

[Sandra]

Hi everybody, it was a good visit.   I felt listened too and believed. I too understand completly about the repalcment dose of pred Linda, but it is so frustration how many technicians or even dr's who don't get that. I am simply repalcing the steroid.
Anyway the dr at KGH (Kingston Gen) agrees that my concerns are valid especially because my breathing is affected usually only in a bad flare kind of thing when pretty much everything is also affected. But also around smoke, heavy perfume, paint or lilac season. He says my lungs are clear today. I do however still deal with horrible fatigue and shortness of breath, over-heating, painful breathing etc. I asked if the fibromyalgia could cause the pain etc and he did say it was possible. So he has asked me to repeat the "blow in the tube test" that I had done a few years back and also was happy to hear my rhumey had already booked a CT of the chest, abdomin and pelvis. I will see him in Sept. He advised me not to use the puffers my gp offered but to go ahead and try the nasal steroid spray faithfully for about a month. I had explained that at the sjogren's clinic in Toronto the surgeon/ENT specialist told me to put nothing up my nose more than a saline moisturizer....so I was kind of stuck at what to do. So I will try it faithfully for a while. Well so far so good. Tomorrow I see the neurologist I hope he is as tuned in.  Sure is allot of work every time the rules change isn't it though? Thanks Sandra

[Scottietottie]

Hi Sandra 

I'm glad the appointment was a good one. It really makes a difference when we get docs we can trust. I hope the next apointment is the same.

Take care - Scottie