Yesterday I thought I'd try some exercise for the first time since I started with the last chest infection. Big mistake, unfortunately as my chest got very tight and I ended up using 10 puffs of ventolin. It did the trick and the tightness went but my peak flow still wasn't that high. Before exercise was 460, after exercise 380, 10minutes after ventolin 480, my personal peak flow is 570 but even on oral steroids I haven't got higher than 480-500. I just wondered if 10puffs should have made my pf higher?
Before the chest infection I was getting 550 quite regularly. I just wondered if my best had just reduced now?
Well I can only really speak for myself. But I know when I've been sick, even if I'm feeling O.K., but peak flow can be a bit lower for a while. Sometimes too, it can be higher than normal for a while on the pred, but when I get off the oral steroids it's average lower than normal again.
What I do is I do try to at least go on some slow walks, stopping or pausing if I get symptoms. Taking extra reliever is a good thing if you're getting symptoms. But also, I don't worry so much about peak flow when I've been sick and am starting to exercise.
In other words I would do what you did- stop and take reliever by my plan until hopefully I felt better (wasn't tight at least while sitting and relaxing).
But if my peak flow was still yellow, I wouldn't stress about that. Sometimes I find PF helpful, but much more often I base med changes on my symptoms as I find my PF changes later than my symptoms and then I never react in time.
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