I second this. I’m a sports med doc and sometimes see patients who have had vcd complaints for years that are undiagnosed.
As the wizard says ents can often make this diagnosis looking at your vocal cords after exertion. I would see an ENT. Speech therapy can be very effective and an ent who sees patient for this should be able to direct you to a speech therapist who tests this.
Will be going to an ENT soonish. I suspect they’ll say “sorry, don’t have the equipment to do a proper test, here’s a prescription to try” like the so-called exercise-induced asthma specialist (actually a pediatric allergist, apparently…let’s just say I was the biggest kid in the office) I talked to. He said I’d have to go to Tokyo if I wanted to do any of that sort of proper testing.
Just to set the record straight for me, is the so-called maximal forced exhalation wheeze normal, or is it indicative of some sort of condition?
Because I wheeze bigtime when I, uh, force exhalation maximally.
By the way, is the drug used in asthma challenges previously mentioned methacholine? just curious.
Saw a video that might help. Look up the Velon one for the end if the Ride London Classic. It has the sprint at the end when they’re breathing as hard as possible and the rider behind is as near to the microphone as I think you are going to get.
I still think taking a video would be a good idea. What if the obstruction is functional & only appears when you exercise? It would appear normal when they see you in clinic. They might do an exercise test, but then what if you don’t get it during the 1 test…
I did take a video. Showed it to a doctor. He gave me a prescription for a bronchodilator that I haven’t around around to filling out since he can’t do any proper tests. It probably won’t help, since it’s probably a vocal cord issue, not a lung issue.
I need to take a second video showing my expiratory wheeze instead of just my inspiratory stridor, although I wheeze on maximal forced exhalation regardless of whether I am exercising.
I don’t know what video you are referring to unless it was from a previous year.
Just need to get an elite rider mic’ed up during a ramp test…
Doesn’t sound like you have great confidence in your Dr. Here in the U.K. a hospital doctor (not surgeon) would need to be able to spot the difference between an upper airway obstruction and lower from the “end of the bed”, which is why I thought a video might help.
If you think it is a constant obstruction then it will probably easily show up on easy to arrange standard lung function tests. If, as you expect, the inhaler doesn’t work just ask for some.