Do I have a “History of Asthma”?

I cough all the time. (I had attributed this to allergies.)
I cough in the summer.
I cough in the winter.
I cough if I laugh.
I cough when I’m not stuffy at all.
I cough because of the inversion.
I can’t breathe up in the mountains.
I cough if I wrestle with my husband.
I hyperventilate when I play tag with my cat.
I periodically have coughing fits when over exerting myself.
I can’t climb more then one a flight of stairs without stopping halfway to breathe.
I get winded walking from one end of my house to the other. (Isn’t this because I’m fat? Or am I fat because I can’t breathe?)
Odd as it seems I also can’t breathe if I drink carbonated beverages. (does this have anything to do with asthma?)

I think it goes back to the statement: “I think I should have gone to the doctor more as a teenager.” What if I have had all these problems all this time and it was just never caught? Hmmm. that was the interesting question that my husband asked yesterday. In our family we only really went to the doctor if you were broken. Could this be an ongoing problem that was just never diagnosed? When the doctors ask if I have had a “history of...” I always say no because there is no recorded history and I have probably written the problem off as related to something else.

I seriously have felt a million times better since I have had my inhaler and can breathe again. I’m not tired. I haven’t had to stop at the top of the stairs to not die when I walk into work in the morning. And oddly enough I don’t get heart burn as much when I can breathe. That’s a weird side effect.

So the next time the doctor asks if I have a history of asthma the answer is yes.