Hi, I am new to this forum, and am at my wits end. If any of you have similar experience, relevent advice (don't worry, I'm trying medical avenues and have an appointment with an internist and will not do anything without proper consultation). or anything to offer, I would be very grateful.
When I was a child, I was diagnosed with asthma. For years, I didn't believe that I actually had it, nor did I take my medication for it, because my doctor didn't explain to me his knowledge about cough-variant asthma. Apparently, he explained this to my parents, but not to me. I didn't believe it until my mother (who also has it) pointed out that she had it undiagnosed for years, and after enough damage, pogressed into more regular asthma, for which she has had to be hospitalized with.
I've always been prone to developing bronchitis from viral infections, but in 2003 ( I usually get one once or twice a year) they started lasting abnormally long. At first they started lasting four weeks, then six, then eight. Then in 2006 had bronchitis for three months. Finally that one went away, until the sprng of 2007 when I came down with a virus, and then ended up with bronchitis for six months. Now, during that, I discovered that the apartment that I had moved into during the winter of 2002, had a major toxic mold problem that remained hidden within the structure, until flooding and our lack of air-conditioning brought it out into the open.
So, I moved into a much more modern apartment (the apartment that I had lived in was a very old house that used to be military housing a long time ago, and had been divided into two apartments (we were n the basemen). By October, I had for the most part stopped coughing (save for the much less occasional but still usual dry cough that just seems to be a part of my life, even with treatment). Then in February, I came down with the flu,and had bronchitis through March. I am a flute player, and even though my voice was starting to come back and my coughing was less, the longest phrase I could make was 2 measures (standard is 4). So then in April, I caught a cold and from that bronchitis, I was struggling for breath every measure (I couldn't even make 1 measure!) and I am still coughing. It is still somewhat productive, though appears to not be infected. I am now back to being able to make 2 measures (in 9/8) unfortunately not yet in 4/4. (9/8 essentially boils down to 3 beats per measure), but I'm still hacking like a seal. This is totally getting in the way of my life. I'm on all kinids of allergies and asthma meds, I am nebulizing with 2 different meds, and I'm just stuck.
Does anybody have any ideas or siimilar experiences?