Asthma isn’t just a younger person’s disease. Ed M. didn’t know he had it until his mid-60s.
“I started getting a lot of mucus, which was causing nonstop coughing,” Ed says. “The mucus was very thick, and I wasn’t able to cough it up. At the time, I had no idea what was going on. After I had spent an entire night coughing, I went to see my doctor, who sent me for x-rays.” Soon after, Ed saw a specialist. The reason for his all-night coughing? Ed had experienced an exacerbation of his asthma, also called a flare-up. That’s a severe worsening of asthma symptoms.
In 2015, Ed, then working as an accountant, had another bad asthma exacerbation that kept him out of work for six weeks. On another occasion, his coughing was so bad that co-workers complained to Ed’s supervisor.
“At night, I could not lie down,” Ed says. “To keep my mind off the coughing, I would have the TV on. I would sit in the chair and hold a pillow over my stomach because the coughing was so bad that the muscles in my stomach would turn black and blue and hurt like crazy.” Ed took daily medications to control his asthma. But in one year alone, he had three asthma exacerbations, which landed him in the emergency room more than once.
“I went to the hospital because I just couldn't take the pain in my rib cage anymore,” Ed says.
Getting asthma under control
Pulmonologists at the Temple Lung Center helped Ed reduce his asthma exacerbations. Temple has the experience and technology to offer a full range of asthma treatments, including advanced treatments for people like Ed, whose asthma symptoms were severe and hard to control. Along with the latest treatments for asthma, Temple’s team addresses any underlying conditions that contribute to uncontrolled asthma, such as allergies and sinus problems.
With help from Kartik V. Shenoy, MD, Ed’s asthma control improved. However, Ed still had occasional flare-ups. It was time to turn to advanced options. The leading-edge care at Temple includes access to the latest biologic injectable medications, minimally invasive procedures, and clinical trials.
In 2023, to reduce Ed’s exacerbations and help him avoid further hospitalizations, Dr. Shenoy helped Ed enroll in a clinical trial for asthma patients.
Once a month, Ed receives an injection of an investigational biologic medication, tezepelumab (TEZSPIRE). When a person with asthma is exposed to an asthma trigger, such as pollen or smoke, their immune system responds by creating swelling — an asthma exacerbation. The investigational biologic asthma medication works by disrupting that reaction.
Ed hoped the investigational medication would do that for him — and his experience was everything he’d hoped for. He no longer struggles with the thick mucus in his lungs that triggered his coughing.
