sorry in advance for my rant but Im just so frustrated! went to the asthma clinic today had appointments for my children and myself, kids appointments went fine, not that she was overly bothered but the kids only get problems with their asthma when they are poorly or with excise, mine however is clot more complicated, she asked me how i was feeling so i was honest with her, explained how still using my blue inhaler several times a day despite also using my nebuliser and also how the lack of sleep is driving me mental, i haven't slept for more than two hours for months, she said because i was under the con she didn't want to change anything and then told me being as bless as i am in the breast department was causing me more problems, like i can help that! but the thing that really got me more than anything is she spent 20 telling me how to improve my diet, Iam a bit over weight, four times longer than we spoke about my asthma! Im so sorry for moaning but it just really got to me xxx
useless asthma nurse!: sorry in advance... - Asthma Community ...
useless asthma nurse!
awwww feel free to rant (hugs)
i had a useless nurse once. I used to be quite overweight (ok very overweight). Anyway one year i decided i would lose weight. My diet started in the january and my annual asthma check (yes i know i'm lucky) was in the october. When the nurse weighed me i'd lost about 2 stone but there was no congratulations / well done / keep it up - her comment after looking at last year's weight was ""well you were morbidly obese now you're just overweight!"" Hmph!!
The following year i was absolutely perfect weight and i wanted to be able to go and sort of say nerr nerr ne nerr ner - and she'd left!!!!
[as a PS, i had a car that my friend christened eeyore and it stuck lol - the first 2 letters were EO 
]
thank you for taking the time to reply, i found the whole thing totally frustrating and although Im sorry you experienced something similar i am glad Im not alone, many thanks again x
The Asthma Clinic Nurse at my GP surgery once gave me a nebuliser with Ventolin but if she took the time to have read about me she would have seen that I am allergic to Ventolin she soon realised her mistake when I reacted very badly to it and a doctor was needed to help me.
So I think I know how you must be feeling Eeyore can be so frustrating at times can't it
Omg that is terrible!
I get frustrated with my asthma nurse at times, she is lovely but. I have been to see her at times and she'll say i need a dr to listen to your lungs. Why? Is my question can't you? So have to go and wait to see a dr for them to listen even i could have told you i have a chest infection. The weight thing. She told me to be careful about my weight as it was creeping up slightly, the last the she saw me oh you've lost a lot of weight. All concerned. Can't win.
Our asthma nurse is lovely but very limited in what she can do eg she cant prescribe. But overall I think it is a good thing to have asthma nurses because they can give you more time than the GP. She always checks our peak flow and inhaler technique - useful for my son as he can get a bit laissez faire about things.
only saw this asthma nurse once
went to see her about asthma,
she said it can't be asthma you are not wheezing,
and then went on about cervical screening .
during the whole time her version of deaf awareness was to just keep shouting at me (not helpful at all)
thank you all so much for taking the time to reply, and i dare say if you have a good nurse then that's great but there seems more bad than good, its such a shame because as rightly pointed out it frees up the gp x
don't have an asthma nurse...at all. My doctors surgery have one but doesn't see me...my locl hospital don't have one. Get seen by great GP though
I must admit I don't have a lot of faith in asthma nurses. And their basic knowledge seems to vary from one to the next. I have only had a couple of good ones ever since they were introduced. (Not sure how long ago that was now - 17 /18 years?)
When I was in my 30's one asthma nurse decided to diagnose me with hyperventilation (even though a consultant had confirmed my diagnosis in my 20's) and she put a stop to all of my asthma medication. I was furious and my GP was too. He reassured me she was being retrained and I would not have to see her again... and he referred me back to a consultant too.
I used to have a community asthma nurse. She was fantastic, visited at least once a week, available on the end of phone even hauled me off to a&e on many occasions! Unfortunately she left and the trust only have COPD nurses now so am on my own. My practice nurse cannot help me as she tells me I am to 'scary' for her! although she is very nice though.
Lisa xx
hi ljh tbh that was the feeling i got when i spoke to her that she was frightened by my asthma, i must admit it is very poorly controlled and she is obviously more use to dealing with mild to moderate, well Im going to stick with seeing my gp from now on x
i had the same problem. I went to the asthma nurse and she tried me on a different inhaler because i exercise and she said it would be good. the very next day i had an attack at work but managed to control it without intervention or going home whch is a miracle in itself. i did not feel right over the next few days and my mum even commented she felt i was not breathing right on the friday afternoon. On saturday luchtime i had an asthma attack big time and my husband had to take me up to A & E as unable to breath and wheezing - which i don't do wheezing so i thought. hospital gave me 40mg pred and 10mg ventolin by neb. had to see out of hours doc and still feeling bad, but he said i was not bad enough for hospital although this was the worst attack i have ever had and we live in back & beyond cornwall and he was not prepared to admit me. On the monday i managed to see my usual asthma nurse thinking she would change my medication - no she didn't she said carry on with the medication you are on. over the next 2 weeks i deteriorated more and luckily i had another appointment to see her but she was not there so another doctor saw me. she immdiately took me off the medication she gave me and put me on steroid inhalers and ventolin nebs which i was on for over a week to get my asthma under controlled. the doctor said by this point i had uncontrollable asthma which i was so infuriated by. Thankfully now its ok and stable for the time being!!?
Has anyone else had this problem - again sorry for the rant!!
I've only seen the one at my surgery once, and I got the feeling she was confused by me (join the club lol!). Went to her as I was having a flare-up with Symbicort, she suggested I have a 'review' and flu jab at the same time. She went through the 'are you sure it's asthma? Have you had a chest X-ray?' (seriously, don't go down that route or I'll list every test I've been given and how many times).
She hmmed and hawed about making me see the GP but in the end just rang him on the internal phone and he said 'tell her to try doubling the montelukast, I can't think of anything else that will work.' (It did, but annoyingly got me back only to where I'd been pre-flare-up, when I was on single montelukast!)
She seemed ok but I feel is perhaps not used to dealing with weirdos like me.
I don't think they are equipped to deal with very bad cases (like us!) - our asthma nurse said that our son is the worst case she knows of which is why his school doesnt understand the seriousness of his asthma. School nurse more or less told him to take his inhaler and get on with things. Sorry, going off topic now...
At risk of going further off topic, lots of schools don't get it anyway, even if someone isn't severe! I was very mild at school, but my asthma was exercise-induced and worse in cold air. My PE teacher, who was asthmatic but had allergy triggers and was ok with exercise/cold air, couldn't see any problem with making me run around in the cold - she was fine, so I should be!
Presumably many surgery asthma nurses probably don't have the training to deal with anything beyond the ordinary/'classic' presentation - I'm guessing most are general practice nurses with extra training but they're not usually specialist resp nurses like the ones you get in a hospital.
i agree totally schools don't get asthma, Im lucky that at my daughters school they have the children keep their inhaler in the classroom but my son had his locked away i said he must he is excise induced and even though i said he must have his inhaler when doing sport the school thought it was fine to leave it in the first aid room locked in a cupboard until i pointed out how long it would take then to get it he for example they were on the field. its frustrating with everything that is known today about asthma yet it doesn't seem to be taken seriously x
My asthma nurse said I was probably breathing in too hard when I was taking my inhaler, reducing its effectiveness. She tested this on a device she had which did indeed show this. When I asked her how I could get hold of one of these devices she did her best Basil Fawlty impression and said ""this is mine"" clutching it to her non asthmatic chest! Helpful, not....
schools don't get asthma,
mine as well though cross country running in January no problem !
my slightly better asthma nurse no hoarseness is not a side effect of preventor inhalers you inhaler technique is shit
Kitty43
I think I know the device you mean, ( can't remember the name of it)
the pharmacist I went to see had one
might be worth asking at a pharmacy
hope it helps
Yep,I had the 'lock inhaler away inside during PE' because obviously that's sensible. Until my mum made a fuss. And yes of course, cross-country running is sensible in January for EIA (had one teacher who tried to make everyone who was off games walk the course. OK, better than running but considered there's a reason we might be off? She even tried to make someone who was off with a bad leg do it! I hated the way some PE teachers seemed to think they knew better than anyone else what was good for you.)
I've not come across this device, sounds interesting. And no, of course hoarseness is not a side effect, it's not like it says so on the leaflet...
Is the device you mean an Aerochamber spacer? It's a small plastic tube with blue ends and one has a valve which ?whistles when breathing in too fast
I wonder if you're talking about a 2Tone Trainer? 2tonetrainer.net/?
it was a bit like a peek flow but you breathed in not out it had the ranged of force of breath in for each type of inhaler
New to asthma and scared
Asthma nurse, long term medication 
