Coughing Girl
I finally got fed up enough with the cough and went back to my doctor. As I said to a friend, "How long do you have to be off your peak flow that it's no longer your peak flow?" My doctor was surprised that it hadn't cleared up, since it had been seven months since I last saw him. He thinks I have transitioned from normal asthma to cough-variant asthma. He also figured out that while my usual blood O2 saturation is decent, when I cough it drops into the high 60% range for a while. No wonder I am tired -- it's like having sleep apnea all day long. That's a little scary, because it means I could do something like pass out while coughing. Considering the only time I don't cough is while I am asleep, that's not really good news.
So I am trying a new inhaler, Symbicort, which he didn't put out much hope for. After three and a half days it does seem to be working. I am coughing a lot less and when I do it's not nearly as bad as before. Also my peak is almost up to 90% of my usual peak, up from 80% earlier this week. While three days does not make a trend, I am actually starting to feel some hope that I might not have a hacking cough for the rest of my life. My throat seems to be healing, too.
So I am trying a new inhaler, Symbicort, which he didn't put out much hope for. After three and a half days it does seem to be working. I am coughing a lot less and when I do it's not nearly as bad as before. Also my peak is almost up to 90% of my usual peak, up from 80% earlier this week. While three days does not make a trend, I am actually starting to feel some hope that I might not have a hacking cough for the rest of my life. My throat seems to be healing, too.