At 3:00 this morning I woke up feeling wheezy, took a puff of my inhaler and felt something hit the back of my throat. After several minutes of spluttering, I discovered the source of the problem was an earwig that had crawled inside the case and settled in the mouthpiece. The cap was on, so it must have got in the small gap between the case and canister. This was quite unpleasant but came as no surprise, as the same thing happened to me just a couple of weeks ago.
We seem to be overrun with earwigs at the moment and they're especially keen on hanging around in my inhalers (which I'll be keeping in a tin from now on). Has anyone else experienced this? I've had asthma since childhood and until recently it had never happened to me.
I was camping in France many years ago and the earwigs got everywhere. They poured out the tent poles when we took down the tent! Yick!
Oh and they tipped out of a bird box once... down my front!
I have inhaled fluff and a bit of cellophane from a sweet wrapper through my inhaler. These days I frequently inhale tea and over beverages but that is because I am finding the balence between drinking and breathing hard sometimes either that or someone has put fishbones in with the teabag!
Bex
On a more empathetic note, I have managed to pull the end of my Puffa Pouch over the air inlet of my inhaler, and then wondered why I couldn't breathe through it.
*puts serious face on*
I would also advise that you speak with your GP or asthma nurse, as waking up at night with asthma symptoms can be a sign of uncontrolled asthma and may mean that your medication needs to be altered.
*takes serious face off*
But I'm sure you are aware of that
cathy
Luke, you need a sportshaler, totally bug proof, and fluff proof as well. I love mine so much, that I've just bought another in case they stop selling them, which I think is going to happen as the price has been reduced.
Chris
Well thank you all for your tips! Rentolkil are on standby. I'm glad I'm not the only one who inhales random objects/creatures. Just browsing sportshalers now and they look like a good alternative to opening a tin every time I wake up wheezing (which really isn't that often CathBear - I had an asthma review just a couple of weeks back). Didn't mention the earwigs though.
inhaled earwigs
Yes it happened to me a few years ago! I managed to cough the horrid thing back up. I had used my inhaler first thing in the morning and was still half asleep. I routinely check my inhaler now before using it. Fortunately it has not happened again thank goodness. Brilliant site btw. I am a new member.
Reading about the inhaled earwigs etc. with horror.
I've just bought myself a puffa pouch as suggested in someone's earlier post.
Pouch fits snuggly over the top end of the inhaler's plastic case - canister still sticks out the top - to stop anything falling down the sides. No more inhaled fluff or what have you! 8P
earwigs not nice
They do seem to be everywhere at the minute. Found one boiled to death in my veg a couple of days ago, REALLY AWFUL. For us not the earwig! I passed on the carrots that night but no one else seemed to come to any harm. However I do always check my sons ""puffer""just in case we have any visitors. I think I would have been sick. I know they are only little but they do make me cringe terribly.
Having purchased my puffa pouch and showing off to all and sundry, I was down visiting wee granddaugter. She handed me a tiny paper heart and, having no bag, I slipped the heart down between the canister and plastic case of my Ventolin. Pushing the puffa pouch shut around the case to keep her present safe - totally meaning to remove it at home.
Of course I forgot all about it and later that night when different from normal diluting juice started off the asthma cough, I whipped out the Ventolin and inhaled the paper heart. LOL
Managed to cough it back up immediately but felt so stupid after crowing about the benefits of my puffa pouch.
Yes, it keeps anything from going in by itself. But doesn't prevent a mad owner from doing something daft. 8)
Just inhaled an earwig :/
Updating my facebook status wasn't enough, Had to google inhaled earwig and found this site.... Not impressed with the little intruder but his site seems good!
Dont know if there were any long term health defects which could have occured if the little guy made it into my lungs but there definately were implications for the little bugger... DEATH!
Happy halloween
eewwww I never even considered this might happen! Think I will be checking mine from now on...so far have not inhaled anything except the stuff you're meant to
On the other hand, when I wake up at night I tend not to be with it - half the time it doesn't even occur to me to take my inhaler if I wake up with trouble breathing, let alone check it for objects - apparently this requires too much logical thought and I'm still in that state where I think I'll feel better if I can just get rid of the winged monster that's sitting on my chest by waving my arms at it. (I was trying to explain this to the asthma nurse without sounding totally crazy and as though I was having delusions - not sure she got it, but at least she didn't suggest I ought to be trying another type of medication entirely lol. I just have trouble letting go of crazy dream-world when I wake up).
this is ultimatly nasty! i am so glad that i no longer use a ventolin inhalers or inhalers that have the little gap with the canister and i just use nebs!! nowhere to crawl into in that...well not that can then shoot into my mouth!!!
this has really made me cringe!!! yuk!!!
x
I am so glad I found this post. I had a similar experience last night. However I inhaled several earwigs and was bitten inside my throat and airways several times. It was a horrible experience and I still have a sore throat today. I'm sure that if any made it into my lungs, that they are dead and will be broken down naturally. But I'm still very freaked out.
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