Last weeks chat

[Guest guest]

Hi Addy,

I seemed to have missed last weekend's chat as I was away on work.

Could you please let me know what happened, or is there a link with

the history of the chat? Thanks.

A status update - I used to get severe chest tighteness and shortness

of breath, and the doctor told me I had developed arthritis in my

lungs, apart from having asthma all my life. In the last 8 weeks the

pains have almost disappeared. When it gets really humid in NY,

I 'used' to suffer the worst. Last summer I was in bed most days

after work, safe in an air conditioned room. Yesterday, was the first

time I played soft ball after a long time and it was 94% humid. I was

no super athlete, and did score 1 home run, but what a difference

Xolair has made. This morning I still feel great. I am not cured and

still take my combivent, singular, pulmicort and serovent daily, but

I have more freedom to move around! It has been over 2.5 months that

I have been prednizone free. After reading what the group has said, I

am going to try Advair and see if that helps.

I would encourage everyone to try yoga also. I have been doing that

for the last 2 months and I have really seen the difference in my

breathing.

Addy - i cannot find that book 'Coping with Prednizone'. Do you have

an ISBN number for that please. Recently, what I have been noticing

is that I am eating less and less especially at dinner time.

A question for the group - If you are an asthmatic, what is the

probability of your child developing to, or having a child who would

develop asthama? My wife would like to find an answer for that.

Thanks, I would appreciate anyone's advice on this.

Ash

Happy breathing everyone!

[Guest guest]

Ash & everyone,

We only had a handful of people for the chat. It went well, but the

Genentech folks sent Doug a nice email the day before explaining

that they wouldn't be able to participate. (I suspect due to

potential liability reasons, but they didn't specifically say

that.) So we didn't have any experts, just us users.

" Coping with Prednisone " - My copy is less than a year old and the

ISBN is 0-312-19570-2. Published by St. 's . The

authors are a pair of sisters - one a doctor who frequently

prescribed pred for her patients but didn't really understand its

power until her sister was prescribed high doses of pred over time

for a chronic illness (not asthma).

My understanding is that there is a greater chance of a child

becoming asthmatic if he has one or more asthmatic parents, but I

don't know what the percentage is. I don't know how allergy is

involved in that.

I'm the only real allergic asthmatic in my family. That said, all

the women on my mother's side have/had arthritis, which is another

inflammatory disease. I suspect that somehow my Dad's DNA plus my

Mom's put me at risk for allergic inflammatory response somehow and

I wound up with thirty years of misery prior to Xolair. Oh, and

that doesn't let me off arthritis - I already have mild symptoms in

my right hand which are worse now that I don't take pred all the

time. Go figure.

Woke up stuffy this morning at 5:30am. Xolair day tomorrow, thank

goodness.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Addy