Sarge:
Sorry for the screwed up reply above.
I still have not figured out how to "quote and paste" on this board.
I think it is a good idea for you to see your "primary" again. Was this a respiratory specialist that you saw?
I have no doubt that you are jumpy and nervous after taking the albuterol. After all, you are taking two bronchodilators. Serevent is a slow onset, long-acting bronchodilator and albuterol is a rapid onset, short -acting bronchodilator, and the two of them together are giving you this side effect.
Asthma is a disease of inflammation, and cough, wheeze, or shortness of breath are merely the symptoms of the disease. One can treat the symptoms with Serevent or Albuterol, but treating the symptoms is only part of the story. One must treat the underlying inflammation first and this will likely alleviate most if not all of the symptoms. The occasional, remaining bit of cough, wheeze or shortness of breath can be treated with bronchodilators as "rescue" medication, but these "rescue" bronchodilator should never (or rarely ever) be used as the primary treatment. It is generally accepted that the use of rescue medications more than two or three times a week indicates poor control of the asthma and the need for additional treatment.
I cannot really comment on your pulmonary function test results without seeing them of course but if they are that close to normal, then certainly one has to question the diagnosis. Were you exercise stressed prior to doing the pulmonary function test? If not, it is difficult to make a definite case for exercise-induced asthma unless the history is very typical, and in your case I would say that it is not "very typical".
I would certainly ask your primary-care physician for a referral to a good respiratory specialist, preferably one who has experience and an interest in treating asthma, and one might even ask for a referral to a respiratory specialist who has expertise in treating asthma in athletes.
I have asthma myself, so I am good at managing it and enjoy seeing patients with asthma, but many family physicians and general internists are not particularly skilled in the treatment of asthma.
Go get another opinion Sarge!
I am pleased that you are persevering in this, and I am confident that you will eventually come up with the right answer -- don't give up!
Sandy
