Normally, I don't wheeze, but I recently realized that I don't let out
all of the air before I breathe in again.  I have to force this extra
air out, and when I do, I wheeze.  When I breathe "normally" it is VERY
shallow all the time.  I usually have a cough, and I've just noticed a
wheezy sound to it.  I also get this burning sensation in my lungs.
Sometimes it's just uncomfortable, but sometimes I feel like I'm
breathing fire.  I just noticed this week that it coincided with a
flare up w/ my allergies.  I don't know if that's usually the case.  My
chest feels congested a lot of the time, and sometimes I feel a
rattling when I breathe, but my coughs are always dry.  I feel short of
breath a lot.  Sometimes I get out of breath just singing to the radio.

When I saw the doctor a month ago, she increased the Advair to 250/50
and put me on albuterol 4x a day.  I also take Singulair.  None of this
has helped at all.  Today she refered me to a pulmonologist.  What can
I expect from him?  I'm a little worried because I'm still having
trouble, and I can't get an appointment with the pulmonologist until
next month.  I have actually felt a lot more short of breath this
month, but I think it might be that I can breathe deeper more
comfortably after I've taken the albuterol.  When it wears off, I'm
still trying to breathe as deeply, but it's a lot harder.  When I can
get myself breathing as shallowly as I normally do, a lot of that
feeling of being short of breath goes away.

I know that the fact that I live with a smoker who burns candles to
cover the stink (both of which bother me) who also firmly believes that
all of that stuff about second-hand smoke is BS doesn't help, but I
can't afford to move out.  Actually, the smoker is my mother, so I've
had to live with it my whole life.  I don't know how much that might
factor in with some of the  symptoms.  I do spend most of my time in my
room with my air cleaner on high.

I'm just wondering about these symptoms that are unusual and whether
anyone else has them.  Also, is there anything that might help me get
through the next month?  Even with the albuterol, sometimes it helps a
lot (but not completely), but other times I don't notice a whole lot of
difference.  I have to work the day they scheduled the appointment, so
I'm hoping when I call to change it, I can get it moved up.