Allergens and Asthma

As many of you know, I have suffered with a chronic cough and congestion for the past 3 years. A couple of years ago my primary care physician referred me to a pulmonologist. He prescribed a chest X-ray and a CT scan for me; tried several different combinations of antibiotics; and, finally, took a sample of the junk I was coughing up and was able to customize an antibiotic. It worked beautifully in the short term; however, once the prescription was used up, the cough came back.

Time passed; I've continued to cough, continued to be congested, and several times I've been bad enough to go to the doctor. Each time a round of antibiotics has been prescribed and I do well until the round is used up.

A couple of weeks ago was my annual check-up with my pulmonologist; I was congested and was coughing. I told him I thought I needed to go to an allergist and he agreed.

Today was my appointment with the allergist; I learned that I am highly allergic to all trees, grasses, molds, dusts, and ragweed (as well as to cockroaches). But, even more interesting, I learned that my doctor wants to treat me for asthma! One of the first things I did was to take a deep breath exhale into a monitor; they then gave me a puff of ambuterol and re-tested me. As it turns out, I did 20% better after the ambuterol which indicated to the doctor I probably have asthma which is triggered by my allergies.

I have an arsenol of meds for both my allergies and asthma; I go back in 4 weeks and Dr.l Gupta assures me I will feel SO much better when she sees me again. . .

I'm looking forward to that!