Hi Zara,
Both Skye and Jordy's mom are two people who "get" the asthma component and have given you good advice. And they gave you excellent advice.
There are two parts in treating the asthma component of CF.
1) Doing everything that you can to clean up your environment (indoors and using protective measures outside the home), eating a preservative and chemical free diet, taking appropriate supplements, preventing and knocking out colds before they take hold.
2) Finding a doctor who will recognize the asthma component, who will give you appropriate medications and be able to guide you when you want to try an alternative treatment.
Now here is the tricky part. Some of the things that my doctor has taught me are not in any textbook. There is little research on what is called multiple chemical sensitivity that is probably the major cause of my exacerbations and probably in a good number of other CF people, if not everybody. There are no tests for chemical sensitivities, but my doctor has made me aware of these triggers and I pass them along to all of you.
In other words, in addition to allergies, substances like chemicals cause inflammation in the body which manifest itself in lots of ways. For Cf'ers, the most obvious is lung involvement. But how many of us complain about fibromyalgia, joint pains, stomach issues, bladder issues, difficulty getting pregnant, skin problems, headaches... the list is endless. When my doctor helps people to identify and remove the triggers, all kinds of problems are relieved, in all kinds of people, not just respiratory patients.
Be aware that sometimes, you get an immediate reaction, other times reations occur within 48 hours so people do not make connections between triggers and exacerbations. And some things slowly build inflammation without you realizing it, like for example - carpets, fireplaces, toxic cleaning supplies, cold air, pets, smoke, nail salons or coloring your hair without wearing a charcoal mask, etc.
Let me give you an example of how I was exposed to something this week, that had I not been aware, would have turned into in an exacerbation. I was at a friend's house when suddenly I had an uncontrollable coughing fit (not wheezing at all). I used my inhaler and was fine. I knew what caused it. I had been sitting next to freshly cut flowers which were giving off a pleasant scent. It took about an hour before it caused the reaction and I should have not sat near it, because I thought it wasn't going to bother me.
That night I was up, my sinuses were clogged, dripping down my throat and I was up coughing the whole night. And I felt sick for 2 days. Because I knew what my trigger was, I knew what to do for the next few days: extra nasal rinses, extra breathing treatments and the Flutter. I even tried Airborne that stopped the dry cough because it probably has some kind of antihistamine in it.
If you want to know all that I do, put Nightwriter into advanced search, put in key words like asthma, sinuses, or supplements or even more specific things like Tumeric and some dates and you will get be able to pull up all the information that I have written about, including what I have taken and dosages. It goes back to August, 2008 when I joined. Herbs and supplements are great, but they are only part of the big picture.
If you can't find specifically what you are looking for, let me know, and I will happily post them for you.
And by the way, my boyfriend is from the U.K. too, so I know you may have to be a little more insistent with National Health.
