Asthma and Allergies
It's been about 2 years since my lupus symptoms started. During that time, I've had several severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis, rashes) to drugs and my asthma goes off the rails. It's to the point that when my joint pain is bad, there's a good chance my asthma and allergies will act up. It's weird because I've had allergy shots, and as a result only needed occasional albuterol. Now I'm back where I started...way too much medication. It's as though my immune system totally forgot what it learned from 3 years of shots.
Anyway, just wondering whether anyone else noticed their asthma and/or allergies get out of control during a lupus flare.
, Thank you for sharing with us. While I don't live with asthma, you are certainly not alone in your experience! One of our patient leaders wrote about her experience living with lupus and asthma. https://lupus.net/living/developing-asthma I addition, our team of medical writers also published a piece about the link between lupus and asthma https://lupus.net/clinical/asthma-copd. I hope there is some useful information in there for you! Sending gentle hugs
Gabby (team member)
I do not have asthma I have spoken to other lupus warriors that do and have had the same issue. Sometimes I think that lupus messes with everything and doesn't know when to stop. I hope someone else can chime in with more of a personal experience. ~Racquel~ lupus.net team member Thank you for responding! Most people that get diagnosed with asthma in childhood often have other issues such as eczema and allergies. There's actually this thing called the Allergic March (https://aafa.org/allergies/living-with-allergies/allergic-march/) that starts early in childhood. I'm not sure whether it's the case with people that get diagnosed with asthma after lupus where they often have other allergic problems. There's a medication called Xolair (https://www.xolair.com/). I was really curious whether it would be helpful for lupus, in addition to asthma, you know, like a BOGO. Buy an asthma drug, get a lupus one free! Genentech wasn't helpful, but I did find this study demonstrating that Xolair may also be beneficial for lupus: https://creakyjoints.org/about-arthritis/lupus/lupus-treatment/asthma-drug-help-lupus-patients/. I know Xolair wasn't developed to treat lupus patients, but it would certainly help a lot to reduce medication usage and cost.
I'm taking a combination of different things like Advair, Singulair, occasional short courses of oral steroids, etc. I'm sleeping through the night, I don't hack up a lung when I vacuum or do yard work and I rarely use my rescue inhaler due to asthma attacks. The medicines are helping. It's just a lot of medication that I haven't needed for a long time. And the number of drug allergies is a bit disconcerting. I really wish someone could tell me what happened, why my immune system is now so incredibly confused. I can tell you the day and time this all started, the autoimmune issues, complete loss asthma control, drug allergies, unusually bad regular allergies and some pretty unusual infections. I'm not convinced my allergy/asthma issues are directly linked to my autoimmune issues, but I think all these events are connected in some way. Regardless, all the above are being treated. I just think they need to be looked at as a set, not individual parts. 
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That makes so much sense. I do hope you find some help and support putting all the pieces together and you find some much-needed answers.
Please keep us updated. ~Doreen (Team Member)
