Big time asthma sufferer here. This year has been particularly bad for me. I have made multiple trips to docs and the ED.

You mentioned trouble with mucus. I take 600 mg of guafenesin in am and 1200 mg pm.

Another thing that works for me is albuterol nebulizers. They seem to reach further into my airways than just the rescue inhalers. I am going to ask my doc next month to add atrovent to my home nebulizer because it works well for me in the ED.

There are quite a few drug options. Do you have an allergist? If you have not had allergy testing recently you might want to do so to see if you can find what is triggering your asthma since you mention it is worse than normal.

I am bipolar too but have not had any problems with the steroids. I always keep some around for when the asthma is particularly bad.

Asthma sux. Good luck.