Monthly Asthma Chart. Any good ones to download?

Hello,

I am new here and just been diagnosed. I live in Italy and am getting to grips with the language which makes things all the more confusing.

I have a couple of questions if anyone would be so kind to answer

Excuse the questions, I really am at base 1. (know very little about Asthma)

1. I have been given an ""inhaler"" I think it's a reliever. It's blue. I was wondering if all blue Bronchodilators are the same all over the world. ie. Ventolin?

2. I need to write a diary and go back to see my Dr. in a month (need to learn to write Italian fast...) I was wondering if there are any good charts that can be downloaded so I can be sure to write in the right info.if that makes sense

3. Should I take the reliever if I am feeling just a slight tightness? I have only tried it once (2 days ago) and it was wonderful to be able to breath well - at the same time I don't want to overdo or exaggerate anything

Many Thanks for any answers back....

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Hi,

Ventiolin is the most commonly used reliever they perscribe especially in the UK. Ventolin is safe & you can't overdose so you should take it as and when you need it. If you do take alot of Ventolin in a short space of time you will feel shakey. If you have a peak flow meter & need to keep track of your readings I use the peak flow diary 9found on this site)to keep track of mine.

Hope everything goes ok good luck with the Itallian

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Hi Luisa and welcome!

Just to add that like Sarz said you should take Ventolin as and when you need it (in case you need the drug name and didn't know it's salbutamol, albuterol in the US). However if you are needing a lot of Ventolin the doctor will probably want to try you on a preventer - the reason taking a lot is bad is not because of what the drug does to you (it's pretty safe) but because it shows your asthma isn't well controlled.

Re the charts: do you have a phone or something or are you looking for a paper one? There are some apps in the iTunes store (I have an iPad, but probably they have them for other systems like Android too) which are for tracking asthma - you can keep track of your peak flow and write down symptoms. I used one called AsthmaMD to start with but it did some very odd things so now I use one called AsthmaTrack which costs I think £1.50 and is better - makes more sense to me.

I used to use the Asthma UK paper chart but found it didn't have enough space especially for writing symptoms down.

Good luck, hope the communicating in Italian goes ok!

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Hi and welcome,

I would definately take the Ventolin when you need it as it's helped - you can't really overdose on it, so I wouldn't worry about that (you may just get shakey if you take loads).

With the asthma diary, I'd be very tempted to stick to a graph / numbers to ensure that there's no language/translation problems.

Asthma UK do a peak flow diary if you have a peak flow meter, so you can produce a graph - that's always helpful as it shows what's going on and helps you to monitor your self.

When you've finished learning Italian, I may need to borrow you - had a doc at the hospital who was Italian and spoke very little English - and was the spitting image of Manwell (sp?) in Fawlty Towers - made it sooo difficult to take him seriously! Ooops.

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Thanks so much for your replies.

Ratty, yes I can imagine exactly how you felt for us English, some Italian's actions can seem very comical. On the plus side in general, Italian Drs are very good and thorough