Asthma reoccuring from childhood/mild chest pain during exercise?

Kevar

I had asthma as a child, and had to use some sort of breathing machine each night (not while I slept - just for like half an hour at night), but never required a normal inhaler and all symptoms cleared up after I turned 8 or 9 (I'm 19 now). But I'm going into the Air Force next year (talking to a recruiter at the end of this semester, I can get a waiver for the childhood asthma since I haven't had any occurrences after my 12th birthday) so I've had this fear that my childhood asthma might reoccur through some kind of trigger, like exercise. I've been getting in shape for boot camp and sometimes I get a very mild chest pain while jogging. It's probable that I'm just out of shape and paranoid, but could it be the asthma from my childhood is coming back or something? I appreciate any information or ways to check up on this.

I need to ask my mom about it again, but I think the last time I talked to her about it she said I had bronchitis and the asthma eventually stemmed from that or something.

edit: So this doesn't sound like a "hey doctors of penny arcade" post, what I'm looking for:

1. if mild chest pain is common when exercising after being out of shape
2. if its more likely its childhood asthma reoccurring and i should go see a doctor
3. if a doctor can even check about this stuff when its triggered by exercise
4. general information / reassurance all my future plans aren't fucked

urahonky

Well I was diagnosed with asthma about a year or so ago, and that was about the time I started working out as well. It did start as a burning in my chest while running/exercising too hard.

But the more you work out the better it gets. My asthma is still here, but since I've been taking Advair and Zyflo CR it's a lot more manageable.

Kevar

urahonky wrote: »

Well I was diagnosed with asthma about a year or so ago, and that was about the time I started working out as well. It did start as a burning in my chest while running/exercising too hard.

But the more you work out the better it gets. My asthma is still here, but since I've been taking Advair and Zyflo CR it's a lot more manageable.

The problem is that having asthma would basically screw up my life, since I couldn't go into the military. Is the mild pain common to getting back into shape or is it always a sign of asthma?

Seldom

get one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_flow_meter
and find out what a normal reading is and what an asthmatic reading is and test yourself after a bit of a workout. the wiki should give you a good idea about how to read your results off of one of them.
alternatively, you can go to the doctors and they should be able to give you a similar, but more in depth, test on your breathing that should be able to give you a really good idea about where you stand with your breathing and asthma.

good luck, hopefully you're just a bit out of shape!

tachyon

I was in the Air Force, and was medically discharged for adult onset asthma. Be very, very careful how you approach this from an official standpoint. I found myself in a situation where I had an acute attack, which I thought was related to bronchitis or something else. I never had asthma, or showed any signs before my 7th year in the AF.

Docs at Bethesda did a methacholine challenge, I tested positive for asthma. The big thing is that on my waiver, it said that I could not wear a gas mask. Couple that with the fact that the AF was actively trying to reduce it's numbers, I was an easy target for discharge.

That was 3 years ago, not sure how much as changed, but if you are in a non critical career field, I'd be careful.