I learned a thing!
Jul. 17th, 2019 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratronToday I had my asthma checkup and I learned a thing!
I've always wondered why my asthma symptoms are so different to those of most other people I know. I obviously HAVE asthma because I get wheezy and find it hard to breathe when I have a snot virus, or when I'm in the presence of triggers like cigarette, bonfire or barbecue smoke (or strong perfumes, or nail varnish solvent, or hairspray, or...)
But I don't get massive wheezing that you can hear, and my peak flow almost never changes. Some of my friends measure their peak flow every day to assess their lung health, but it's pointless for me. If my peak flow goes down from 410 units to 380 units on the EU scale, then I know I am very seriously ill and need to get oral steroids. For most people with asthma, that's a daily change.
Apparently what I actually have is called small airway asthma, i.e. it's mostly in the distal airways and alveoli rather than the bronchioles. That's why my symptoms are mostly snot and post-nasal drip.
Learning this is very interesting and in fact brings the diagnosis full circle. My excellent GP who retired noticed that I had bronchorrhea, which is apparently very unusual outside of end-stage lung cancer patients. Now I have an explanation for that. My asthma is mostly in the distal airways and has mostly been untreated despite high compliance with inhalers.
So I've been given a new and different inhaler to try. It has much finer aerosol particles so is supposed to get deeper inside the lung.
...I can't actually find anything online about small airways asthma other than scientific journal papers, which makes me suspect it's a very new diagnosis.
I've always wondered why my asthma symptoms are so different to those of most other people I know. I obviously HAVE asthma because I get wheezy and find it hard to breathe when I have a snot virus, or when I'm in the presence of triggers like cigarette, bonfire or barbecue smoke (or strong perfumes, or nail varnish solvent, or hairspray, or...)
But I don't get massive wheezing that you can hear, and my peak flow almost never changes. Some of my friends measure their peak flow every day to assess their lung health, but it's pointless for me. If my peak flow goes down from 410 units to 380 units on the EU scale, then I know I am very seriously ill and need to get oral steroids. For most people with asthma, that's a daily change.
Apparently what I actually have is called small airway asthma, i.e. it's mostly in the distal airways and alveoli rather than the bronchioles. That's why my symptoms are mostly snot and post-nasal drip.
Learning this is very interesting and in fact brings the diagnosis full circle. My excellent GP who retired noticed that I had bronchorrhea, which is apparently very unusual outside of end-stage lung cancer patients. Now I have an explanation for that. My asthma is mostly in the distal airways and has mostly been untreated despite high compliance with inhalers.
So I've been given a new and different inhaler to try. It has much finer aerosol particles so is supposed to get deeper inside the lung.
...I can't actually find anything online about small airways asthma other than scientific journal papers, which makes me suspect it's a very new diagnosis.
