Increased Fostair

Hi, I'm new on here so going to try and briefly give my asthma history first =]

I've had asthma for years and years as a child, never worse than just being on 200 becotide and salbutamol.

In November I went to my new GPs about feeling breathless and they gave me a referral to the asthma nurse at the surgery. To cut a long story short, I've spent the past 6 months hopping from one drug to another, with nothing improving my symptoms [breathless, can't get air in, can't do any exercise without symptoms, tight and painful chest, occasional coughing, but no wheeze] too well.

My asthma's not particularly bad but just nothing she threw at me seemed to be improving it lol. I've had budesonide [pulmicort], budesonide/formoterol 100/6 [symbicort], Beclometasone/Formoterol [fostair] and am now on the fostair along with montelukast [singulair] tablets.

The fostair/singulair combination seems to be working, although 2 weeks ago I developed what I thought was a chest infection but Dr said my lungs were clear so diagnosed me with an upper respiratory tract infection but gave me no antibiotics and told me to double up my fostair. I've been on 3 puffs morning and evening for the past 2 weeks and have stopped coughing and felt fine again so this morning tried having just 2 puffs. Oh dear.

Have now spent the rest of the day coughing and feeling chesty, been on my salbutamol several times and now feeling shaky [not good when trying to type the assignment that needs to be finished by tomorrow....]

So basically, after all that essay my questions are 1] how long should I normally have to keep taking the 6 puffs of fostair a day, and 2] The fostair instructions say max dose is 4 puffs a day, is it bad that I'm on 6 or is the 4 just so you see your gp if you need it more?

Thanks and sorry for the essay =] x

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Hi

I'm on fostair too and really have found it's helped my asthma.

When I'm experiencing a bad patch with my asthma my gp recommends going up to 3 puffs x 2.

Although the max dose is meant to be 4 I have always thought it was ok to use more under doctor's advice. However I dont think6puffs is a long term solution so if your peak flow doesnt come back up worth going back to gp / asthma nurse. I tend to use PF as a guide of when to drop down dose and if it gets worse having dropped down go back up and make an appointment.

So basically my advice would be get an appointment but continue using 6 puffs while you wait.

If your concerned about 6 puffs thing remind your doc what the leaflewt says about max 4 puffs? As they dont always remember every detail of suchmeds.

Take Care

Jen x