what is going on?

[alaya8913]

Back in 2012, i went to the er for a bad cough. They diagnosed it as reactive airways disease. Ever since that diagnosis, i been having a cough off and on for 3 months at a time. I been smoking for 11 years now. The er at the time prescribed me ventolin hfa. I went to my regular dr a week later and they ordered me a pulmonary function test. I got the results and it says that there is nothing wrong with my lungs. But i still continue to get the cough off and on every 3-4 months. Every time i use my inhaler, my chest gets aggravated and congested and it makes me cough more...as of 2013, im 28 weeks pregnant and im still smokin cigarettes. Since mothers day 2013, my chest was ptetty bad. When i exhale, i get this rumbling sound in my chest. The dr told me to try my inhaler but i told him my chest gets more congested abd i cough more. He said that it is normal for my chest to react that way with the inhaler. I been having this cough for the past week. I havent used my inhaler yet. Do i need to switch to another inhaler? Please need advice please. Thanks.

[Tammy2009]

Ventolin opens the airways - since you are a smoker there is a lot of mucus build up in there.  Smoking causes the little hairs in your lungs and respiratory system to seize and stop working - this means that they cannot move the mucus out of the lungs if something is irriatating it.  

The ventolin opens the airways and thus is allowing movement of some of the mucus that is stuck.  You WANT to cough the junk out!!  

You probably had a virus or cold of some sort that caused a mild inflammatory reaction in your lungs and because you smoke, your system is unable to "spring clean" or get all the junk and debris left from that.  In turn it is continuing to irritate your lungs and cause coughing and shortness of breath.

Solution: continue using your ventolin inhaler as needed and cough as much of the junk out (try not to swallow it) as possible and limit (preferably stop) smoking.  If you choose not to stop smoking .... the symptoms will continue and possibly turn into COPD which is a progessive illness that will lead to a premature death.  

Please for your child's sake, help your and their lungs flourish by quitting smoking.  Good luck and let us know if there is anything else that you need.

[evewisewoman]

Hello there,

I just finished reading your comments. Do you mean to tell me you are
smoking and 28 weeks pregnant ? Have you considered what damage
your smoking is doing to your 7 month old baby? You say you need
advice . Here's some : quit smoking. Go to you doctor and get her or
him or tell you how to quit smoking. This should also help the cough
you're talking about. Please , for the sake of your umborn child - STOP
SMOKING !    Be well, Eve