The magic of the spacer

I've been taking Ventolin since January and have only been diagnosed with asthma this year. I've been struggling for almost three months trying to control my symptoms. The other night I had such a bad attack that I was unable to take my Ventolin for a couple of minutes (my Ventolin is in the form of a powder inhaler) when I could take the Ventolin it helped and I was able to go back to sleep within half hour. When I mentioned this to my asthma nurse she gave me some Ventolin ( a spray inhaler) and a spacer to use when I was too bad to use my powder inhaler. I had to take my first dose this evening and I already feel the drug is working more effectively than it ever has in the past. I'm really cross that I was not offered Ventolin in this form before, considering I've been struggling for months and I'm on two types of Preventers anyway. Also they said my inhaler technique was good using the powder inhaler like a month ago and this clearly wasn't the case. I just feel like I've struggled for months needlessly. Has anyone else had this experience? I also thought this post would be useful for anyone like me who found/are finding that they are having to use a lot of Ventolin/or struggling to take it. It's worth asking about a spacer.

Cookie xx

[Hidden]

hi cookie

interesting reading your post, i was diagniosed with asthma 4 months ago after feeling really rough for about 6 months, from the start i recieved a spacer and spray inhalers, so dont know any different, have blue, brown tried pink but it didnt suit me, so back on brown but 200 dose, so just waiting to see if that works, but i can definetly say, i can feel the spray inhaler going down in to my lungs, the spacer help with my throat as i would probabley be a lot worse than i am, i think i am very lucky as i have a brilliant asthma nurse who seems to know her stuff, best wishes

[Hidden]

I've repeatedly told gp etc I am useless at aiming my inhalers at the right angle and thus get through them all a lot quicker as I have to do about 3 aims in place of one perfect aim, to hit the spot.

They've now given me a big spacer which is more effective, but even better is a pocket sized spacer you can get on nhs presrciptions. It is funny how the spacer hits the spot first time, but thank god for them.