Misdiagnosed with asthma

@adkindt Gotta love great doctors!
My new pulmonologist diagnosed the same thing (already knew about the Asthma & Bronchiectasis and have them under control) when I reported random incidents of choking on air, water, ice and food for no apparent reason. Speech therapy got mine controlled, and helped me understand when my cough is VCD and when it is in my lungs. I had to wait for years until my pulmonologist in the same practice retired to get on her patient roster.
Do those home exercises - when you backslide, it is immediately obvious...

Hi, @adkindt - sorry to hear about the misdiagnosis and generally long road to your diagnosis. I'm so glad you got a diagnosis that seems correct.

I experienced a pretty long road to my final diagnosis with asthma as an adult. The journey included a pit stop where one doctor thought I had GERD and treated me for that till we realized GERD meds really were not making a difference for me. I had chronic cough, too, which turns out to be my main asthma symptom.

I'm tagging a few other members on Connect who have talked about misdiagnosis with asthma or some other relevant diagnosis, and thus may have something to share about their experiences, such as @toby77 @ssgaurav2000 @payette78 @blm1007blm1007 @californiazebra @mth13.

adkindt - what made your doctor in Jacksonville, FL, decide against asthma and ultimately decide you had inducible larngeal obstruction?

I think there are many obscure disorders, not seen in entire practice histories, so doctors work with the symptoms and patient histories and try to treat what they know. In my case EGPA is diagnosed in only a few people per million per year, and many doctors only saw the condition mentioned in medical school. It is a progressive disease which starts with sinus issues and then asthma-like issues, then intestinal issues and finally vascular and kidneys, so you wind up visiting multiple doctors who never speak to each other to connect the dots. Medicine seems to operate in silos instead of as group diagnosis. Doctors do their best, under pressure to meet insurance and Medicare requirements and multiple patients per day. You can see why we odd ones slip between the cracks.
So glad you finally found the true cause of your issues. I can certainly commiserate and am also glad you have found this site for finding good factual information and friends to help you feel less alone in your journey.
God bless us all,
MTH13

Sue-
Did the Vocal Cord Dysfunction VCD start before you learned you had Bronchiectasis?
I am wondering if one can somewhat expect to develop VCD after years of Asthma and clearing the mucus and or years of Bronchiectasis and clearing the throat.
I am constantly wondering if I am going to end up with a vocal cord problem with my constant having to clear the sputum from my throat that comes up on its own.

Do you know if the medical professionals know if both illnesses can cause VCD after a period of time of having to clear the mucus and how it might affect our vocal cords?
Barbara

Misdiagnosed: I was first told by my PCP doctor I had post nasal drip and the the second doctor, geriatric doctor, I went to twice said seasonal allergies and then the first PCP read the second doctor's summary and changed to saying seasonal allergies.

Misdiagnosed, with GERD, I did not believe I had GERD and did not start the PPI's that my local gastroenterologist said I needed, August of 2022, to take, Yet the Nurse Practitioner, in answer to my question after being told to start the PPI's by the doctors, indicated she had not ever seen such a good report and on a scale of 1-10 with ten being good... I was 9.
Per NJH, OCT. 2022, testing they indicated I did not have GERD.
Barbara

I googled: inducible laryngeal obstruction (ilo) and SOME of what it said:
Causes
ILO can be triggered by exercise, stress, or fumes, or it can occur without a known cause
It can be associated with lung disease

Misdiagnosis:
ILO breathing can be noisy and is often misdiagnosed as asthma
Symptoms of ILO can overlap with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD}

With reading all on Mayo I am learning there are so, so many things that can/do happen to us and this vessel called a body.
Barbara

I believe I have had it for many years. To be honest, whenever I am handed a new diagnosis, I spend /zero time "wondering where I got it" - all I want to figure out is the best way to get rid of it, make it better, or learn to live with it.

I have been prone to laryngitis my whole life, and never could sing worth a darn, even though I came from a family of talented vocalists. I grew up in an industrial neighborhood where the snow in the yard turned gray from pollution within a few days, we played on the debris piles of the factories, and as a youth I worked in some very questionable factory environments. Then we remodeled old houses as a side gig for years, and I always gardened.

I have no idea what the professionals think about cause and effect - I am just happy the speech therapist has found some exercises that work for me.

All that said, my Dad was a talented tenor, and he always taught us kid to be careful how we coughed, cleared our throats and used our voices so we wouldn't "damage our pipes." When I first started airway clearance, it was immediately obvious that I needed to learn the proper huff coughing technique or my vocal chords would be angry - especially since I was nebulizing levalbutero and tobramycin twice a day as well. (Before the days where 7% saline was commonly used)

The lack of efficacy with a slew of medicines for 4 years, and after ruling out reflux with testing, the laryngoscopy with strobe told the story.

Great question! One I plan to ask my cough clinic lead physician.

I hear you. I was also misdiagnosed work silent reflux, which Ph and manometry testing ruled out.