Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Mon 17 Apr 2006 08:06:05p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Christine
> Dabney?
>
> > cough-variant asthma
>
> Christine... How does one recognize this?

I'm not Christine, but basically you cough as your only symptom (or
nearly only symptom). Your lungs can inhale the air but have trouble
expelling it, so you cough...and cough...and cough...to try to expell
the air. It is often misdiagnosed as bronchitis or URI (viral) and
doctors don't know that what they are looking at is asthma.

For me, I get triggered by normal "asthma" triggers - smoke, perfumes,
hot or cold air, etc. Then I cough my head off until I can do a couple
of puffs of albuterol. I also am on Advair prophylactically during
cold season. When under the spell, I wheeze at night but not the
gasping wheeze of a normal asthmatic - it's more like a whistle. I
also am short of breath and tight at times, but not normally - normally
I just cough. My spirometry tests show almost normal patterns, but
trouble expelling air, especially at the end.

When I had my fist extended bout with it, the only thing that
eventually cured me was nebulized lidocaine, 10 minutes, 4 times
daily. Numbing the airway caused the coughing to cease, and the
inflammation eventually subsided. It took 6 weeks or so for it to
resolve competely. That's a treatment I never want to do again.

-L.