I’ve had asthma now for three weeks. Or perhaps I should say, I’ve had the diagnosis for three weeks. And the honeymoon period is now over. I’ve told most of my friends and family about my affliction, the medicine is doing it’s thing (I hope) and it’s all getting to be very routine. I remember to take my brown inhaler morning and evening, and I always carry the blue inhaler with me – either in my handbag or in the pocket of my running jacket.
I’m thinking I also need to keep the blue inhaler beside my bed at night. I woke up suddenly, in the middle of a very exciting dream, last Tuesday night (actually it was Wednesday morning, 1.15am) with a searing pain across my back. As if somebody had stuck a (very large, flat) knife between my shoulder blades and wasn’t going to remove it any time soon. I lay in bed for a minute, breathing deeply and hoping it would go away. Which it didn’t. So I rolled over on to my tummy, knees drawn up underneath me, and did one of those yoga ‘cat’ stretches. (Which is usually great for helping lower back pain.) That didn’t help much either.
And then it hit me – is this what they call an asthma attack? I’ve experienced this kind of pain a couple of times before in my life. Most recently while sitting in a car driving back from a jaunt to Græsted. Thankfully I was a passenger (DH was driving that day) because I was sitting there thinking, “I’m having a heart attack!” It took me a good half hour to get rid of the pain in my chest and scared me no end.
Anyway, back to the early hours of Wednesday morning… I thought I should try my blue asthma inhaler – maybe that would do the trick? Managed to slide out of bed and hobble down the stairs. Sat down on the kitchen bench and took a deep puff. Deep breaths, control your breathing, control your breathing. Now, to be honest, I’m not really sure if it was the medicine that kicked in, or wishful thinking, but it seemed to ease the pain in my back within seconds and I was able to go back up to bed and fall asleep fairly quickly.
Was it an asthma attack? Or something completely different? Hope my fellow asthma sufferers and helpful blog readers can help me out on this one!
Have a marvelous Monday and keep your wits (and your inhalers) about you! 🙂
That is similar to what my Mum told me an asthma attack felt like. Hope someone more experienced can let you know.
I've never had pain with my asthma attacks. I can feel my chest tightening, but not to the point of pain. My breathing gets louder and sounds more and more like I'm trying to suck an olive through a straw.
I'd do an experiment. If it happens again, sit, slow your breathing, do some deep breaths (as deep as you can anyway) and see if that helps. If yes, it could be a muscle thing brought on by that emotional dream, stress, etc. (at that point you have another mystery to solve!) If not, then its the asthma and you know.
That didn't help at all, did it? *sighs heavily*
Sorry to hear about that scary experience – it sounds horrible. I have asthma, but thanks God the last time i had an attack was years and years ago when I was a "wee lassie" :o) But it never the kind of pain you described – I only remember the attack being brought on by a lot of excitement – usually around birthdays and Xmas and then just not being able to breathe, chest tightening and wheezing, pulse racing. Painfully scary but not physically painful. Maybe you should ask the doc if it's normal, as it might be something else, or maybe you pulled a muscle / trapped a nerve? Sending Best Wishes from Germany x
I've never had that sort of pain either, just a tightening of the chest, struggling to breathe choking sensation. It sounds like it could be muscular or maybe anxiety from the dream. There should be no harm in taking your puffer especially if it gave some relief. Hope it's a one off and everything is ok.
Thanks so much for your comments! I'll mention it to the doc when I get my check-up next week – it was pretty scary at 1am in the morning, especially as DH wasn't there to sympathise! LOL
That does sound scary! Please keep us posted.
Just wanted to you know that I've just watched Thoroughly Modern Millie and enjoyed it! 🙂
JoAnna: 'terrif' that you enjoyed Millie! DH is away travelling right now and DS10 was at a school sleepover last night, so DD8 and I watched it (again….) in bed, tucked up with large icecreams! ;D
I have asthma and I can attest that the back pain thing in the middle of the night probably is asthma.
It's a real worry I know, but once you get used to it, you'll manage just fine. The important thing is to recognize situations that might exacerbate your asthma (like putting on a wood burning stove just before bed or breathing in solvents) and to be aware of what to avoid and to keep your blue inhaler on you at all times and to always have two (or three spares).
It is possible to get some normality going, but above all, try and let the worry slide away 🙂
Thanks for that, Babs! As I said, I've only experienced it a couple of times before, but it sure is nice to know what it is! I'll mention it to the asthma doctor so he gets the full picture.