I've had this maybe a handful of times in my life and it scares me. I wake up, feeling like I can't breathe or like I haven't been breathing. In the past, I've had to mentally tell myself to just breathe and then it's fine.
Fast forward to know and I've had some strange respitory problems in the last few months. I got a cold, which turned into bronchitis, which brought on very bad coughing and a wheeze when I inhale. The wheeze, or stridor, isn't always present, but it's there enough to scare me.
I'm seeing an allergist who has me taking asthma medicine. I know that you can have adult onset asthma, but I am questioning this.
This waking up and gasping for air happened last night. I believe I was woken up by coughing and then my breathing felt shaking as I forced air in.
The thing is, I never used my inhaler and it settled down pretty quickly.
I'm on singulair, a controlled daily inhaler called Breo, and a rescue inhaler as needed.
Even today, I feel like my throat is tight, but I can't tell if it's anxiety or not.
I made an ENT appointment, but I feel like most doctors think I'm crazy for being my own advocate. They aren't the ones that live with this.
I get scared about sleep apnea and I also wonder about vocal chord dysfunction, as the tightness is there in the day too.
If it was asthma, you'd think I would need the rescue inhaler to make the episode stop, but I didn't use it last night.
Any advice?