Eczema and asthma, is it connected?

Many people do, indeed, have both eczema and asthma. Think of it as having overly sensitive skin AND overly sensitive airways. Allergies sometimes play a big part in both problems, for some individuals. Neither would be related to having spherocytosis, by the way. Your "panic attacks" may have been asthma -- a mild variation. With panic attacks, they aren't usually related to exercise; they usually involve hyperventilating instead of not moving enough air into the lungs, and people are usually feeling great fear they are about to die. If you just felt tight and as if you could not get quite enough air, especially if you couldn't stop coughing, you may have had asthma symptoms. As for the eczema, sometimes for a rough outbreak, doctors have to step up the potency of the treatment.