Asthma, concentrating problems, and sleep problems/

Faithful_Spot · Newbie Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 1

At the beginning of third grade, I remember that the docter told me I had asthma. I didn't really think much of it, and actually I thought it was fun to get to go to the nurses office before recess to use the inhaler. I also remember that I was coughing all the time. It was always like a bad cold, except I didn't have a fever or anything, just a wet cough all the time. When I breathed out hard, I had a whese (I of course, thought it was funny... ^__^; Wink

After 3rd grade, I didn't really use the inhaler much anymore. But a few years later I went into the docter and they listened to my breathing and said "Um, do you know that your daughter is having an asthma event?" Both my mother and I had no idea. I didn't feel the what they said was asthma, but they put me on a nebuliser for 30 days.

After that, again, I didn't use my inhaler very much.

Just recently I've been sleeping worse and worse. I wake up tired and go to bed even more tired. My dad has sleep apnea so I know the connection between breathing and a good nights sleep. I thought I might have sleep apnea, too, like my dad, but one day when I woke up and it felt like my left lung wasn't working very well, my mom got me a new inhaler (I hadn't used my inhaler in years) and that night I slept a tiny bit better. Since then I've been using my inhaler every night before bed, hoping that it will help me sleep better.

Just recently I got very very frusterated with my inability to concentrate, due to being tired, so I went to the docter. He did a blood test, he put my on loratadine (which is like claritin), and gave me a new inhaler medicine called xopenex that was supposed to work better and not make me shakey. He also gave me a peak flow chart.

For the first few days, we couldn't go get the perscription, but I kept a record anyway. Then when I finally did get the xopenex, the next few days my peak flow chart started dropping, and my lungs felt like it wasn't using the air as much as it should (that's what always happenes when I feel "asthmatic") so I switched back to the albuterol that I had been using, and my peak flow chart went back up.

Well, because the new stuff wasn't working, and the bloodwork came back with nothing (except something about my bloodlevels were up, I forget what it is, that can go up when you have alergies. But since I didn't have the other symptoms of alergies, just a little gunk in my throat, ALLL the time, and the loratadine, the stuff that's like claritin, didn't work he thought that it wasn't because of alergies), he just gave me the option of using advair (which didn't work by the way, either. I used it only one night because the morning after I woke up after having using the advair, I felt AWFUL. My nose was stuffed up, and i could barely breath. I used the albuterol and it cleared right up).

SOOO, I know that this was a long post, and I'm very sorry, but it's kind of a long story, so I wanted to tell all. My question is, what kinds of things could make me so tired like this? I really just want to be able to concentrate again, but I'm so tired (not physically tired, mentally tired) ALL THE TIME, and it's getting on my nerves, and it's affecting my grades! I get 7-9 hours of sleep each night, I don't eat very much suger, I get PLENTY of water every day. I just want to be able to concentrate and memorise my schoolwork again without my eyes starting to droop, and my head starting to feel heavy!

PLEASE PLEASE help!

--Caitlin

Asthma, concentrating problems, and sleep problems/

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