The Lemon Fool

I was diagnosed with mild asthma about 20 years ago, well into adult life. I have never had an asthma attack, but do take preventer medication just in case, as advised by GP.

I am interested to know whether you (irrespective of whether you have asthma or not) sometimes get a wheezy sound from the back of your throat when you have a cold - when taking a deep breath - as if there is some phlegm there to dislodge. Sometimes coughing gets rid of it. I don't even know if "wheezy" is the right word

Does everyone have this from time to time with a cold, or is it specifically an asthma symptom? The only time my asthma bothers me is when this happens during a cold or flu.

BTW - I have none of the Covid19 symptoms but do have a stinker of a cold thanks to Master C and his family staying with us for a week. Having had no bugs at all since last winter it does remind you how easy it is for such viral infections to spread.

Thanks
C

Snorvey wrote:I've had asthma since childhood but it has dramatically improved in the last few years.

Yes, a cold does put a little bit of a strain on my respiratory system. Maybe a bit of tightness/slight wheeze. Keep taking the preventer and keep the blue 'un on standby.

Thanks Snorvey, I've never really understood what is meant by "tightness". I don't think that is something I have experienced. Wheeziness has always been the main thing for me.

I have suffered from asthma for 25 years, and take medication to control it. I have only had a few asthma attacks, which was how I came to be diagnosed.

Any wheeziness that I experience is usually down to phlegm or mucus in the throat, usually quickly expelled. The salbutamol inhaler helps in this respect.

TJH

I've certainly had wheeziness with a cold. Not often, but it includes (one of?) the worst I've ever had, in 2005 when I had so much water in the airways I couldn't lie down without (feeling I was?) drowning. Also includes the much milder one I had in March this year, that caused me to self-isolate.

I have a predisposition to asthma attacks, but according to my doctor it isn't asthma in the proper sense of the word, so I don't get a brown preventer, but only a salbutamol blue reliever. Colds etc are more likely to make my windpipe constrict, and that's when it all gets a bit wet down there.

The issue, if you like, is not that there's more phlegm when I've got asthma, but rather that there's a smaller diameter to my windpipe! The end-effect, of course, is much the same.

I had half a dozen pretty bad asthma seize-ups during my last winter cold, and although the salbutamol helped, I had to learn pretty fast how to relax, breath through my nose, etc. FWIW, I find that a really strong menthol lozenge such as Halls full strength (not the useless low-sugar version) also make a difference.

Many years ago, during my teaching days, I had a twelve year old kid go down with a sudden asthma attack during a school visit to Germany. He'd never suffered one before, and he was starting to go blue with panic. Our quick-thinking hotelier swamped a handkerchief in eau de cologne and held it over his mouth, and the alcoholic vapours soothed the kid and the attack passed, and we got him to the doctor. I don't suppose that was a medically approved technique! But he might have saved the kid's life. A chilling thought.

BJ