Thanks heaps everyone for your posts. I finally went to the ER today as I had had enough, and it was worse today than the past few days. It is not so much my asthma but the fact I have bronchitis! So wiwth the antibiotics and the asthma puffers hopefully things will settle down REALLY soon. I have been working on my relaxation breathing, which has helped a lot, and I will be on the preventative inhaler (that was originally prescribed to no1 daughter!) daily. It's been quite scary as I have never had breathing problems like this before(apart from during panic attacks but they are heaps different) and I am so pleased it is finally going to be resolved. I can't believe only 6 days ago my doc said it was just a cough and there was nothing I could do about it. I will forgive her though becoz she was more f ocused on my SIing and the wound she was treating... But again, thanks for all your help and ideas. I will try out all that I can.