Got through without help.

[Ericthedog]

Just struggled through 3 days and nights without going for help

Why????

Because the medical""profession"" make me feel like a time wasting twat!

I have had a flare up three times over last three months each flare up. Sorted with increase in ventolin and seritide

I have suggested my flare up connected to my hormonal cycle. I was laughed at!

I have just gone through a massive allergic reaction and at this moment struggling to breath Three days and nights later I have taken massive overdose of all forms of antihistamine massive overdose of seritide ( canister emptied in three days ! Massive overdose of ventolin two canisters in three days!!!!!!

Why ? Because sick and tired of being treated like a twat by ""medical professionals"". Would rather tough it out alone than be fobbed off with pred and spoken to like a prat

[Hidden]

If you have had a cannister of seretide in three days you should seek medical help immediately due to potantial cardiac side effects of the LABA in it. You will also likely have issues with lactate due to the LABA and SABAs you have had.

I appreciate the frustration of the situation you are in, but that isnt the way to handle it, if you feel that way you should contact A&E or samaritans or similar. There should be 'crisis' teams around your area for you to get in touch with - your GP may understand how to access those! Persistance is really difficult when you are feeling dreadful! But thats the best thing. If you feel your current medical professionals aren't meeting your needs then is there any way you can change practices??

Hope things work out well for you!

[Hidden]

Hi Reen,

Soph is speaking sense - overusing LABAs (the salmeterol in Seretide) is actually associated with increased risk of death. It can cause a number of different problems, one of which is that the LABA increases your cardiac activity, which can compensate for reducing lung function right up until the moment when it stops being able to compensate... and then you deteriorate very, very quickly - often in minutes.

You are also exposing yourself to huge amounts of systemic steroids there - fluticasone is active in your whole system, and lasts there for several days. In some ways you might have helped yourself in the short term - because you may as well have been taking handfuls of pred (2 puffs of seretide 250 is equivalent to around 1mg of pred for me - they actually use fluticasone for people with adrenal failure who can't take tablets) but you are also endangering yourself because the steroid in seretide is likely to suppress your body's own ability to produce the steroids required for life - so you are now very susceptible to all sorts of things. The maximum dose of Seretide really is a maximum dose - it's not like ventolin where you can take dozens of puffs at a time if needed.

Being 'fobbed off' with pred is a tricky one - pred works, for asthma. So it's the treatment recommended by the British Thoracic Society. You have effectively just given yourself 'pred' in emptying a cannister of Seretide - except that the pred would have cost about 20 pence and Seretide inhalers cost around £50. Oops...

In terms of hormones - the link between asthma and the menstrual cycle is pretty well known - it was one of the first things that my respirologist and my endocrinologist each asked me. And I definitely get an increase in attacks in the few days before my period and the first couple of days of it. The cycle suggests that your asthma has a high allergic component (histamine production varies during your cycle) so that in turn suggests that you should be on antihistamines regularly and probably montelukast if you aren't already? Any doctor or nurse who laughs at you for suggesting that it is linked to your cycle is ignorant as well as callous.

I know you're not going to want to do this, but you *need* to see your GP and explain what you have done. You will probably need to go on to pred or hydrocortisone to taper down from the steroids you have been taking via your inhaler - otherwise you could go into shock, or develop life threatening low blood sugar while you are asleep. I can't stress this strongly enough - even if you feel well right now, as the Seretide leaves your system you will be vulnerable to becoming seriously ill very quickly. In addition, your heart is probably really unhappy, and I imagine that you will have dangerously low levels of potassium which urgently need to be corrected - if you were being treated with that level of steroids and bronchodilators in hospital they would be checking your potassium levels and topping them up.

If you feel it would be easier then you might be better to go to A&E to have your heart and potassium levels checked. I expect your GP will send you there anyway.

I can really relate to how you've ended up in this situation - being a patient is often just a series of humiliating experiences, and the shame we feel in relation to asking for help becomes bigger and bigger. I have utterly freaked out at times and ended up not taking my medication as I am supposed to - and many, many people here have had 'burnout' - which is what you are describing... where you just want to disengage from the horrible doctors and nurses and their horrible judgements and go away and fix yourself, your own way.

Whatever you decide to do, if you experience sudden vomiting or you faint then please, please call an ambulance as you will probably be having an adrenal crisis - these are very unpleasant but easy to fix in the hospital, but unfortunately they can be fatal - especially in combination with the electrolyte disturbances that you must have and the lactate build up.

Take care,

Cx

[Ericthedog]

Thank you both so much for your support

Feeling and breathing so much better today. My heart rate last night was mad! But made it through the night

We'll enough to drive to a beauty spot with my dogs and have a saunter across the fields

Your support and advice made me think long and hard

My symptoms are most definitely linked to my periods and allergies

Must write down all my concerns and be brave and strong to seek help ( I have already had four appointments over last four months with doc and could not face going through being treated like an idiot. One of the appointments was due to a sever allergic reaction that caused my left arm neck and face to swell and rash due to insect nite on arm. Advised to take piriton although struggling to breath I was not wheezing enough to worry the doc !

I was simply told to increase ventolin and seritide until symptoms eased

I now understand why I have been having scary fainting feelings ( not hit the floor yet )

Have to work this weekend hope I can get through without making a prat of myself

Again thank you

I have been asthmatic for over 40 years I have never been given such clear in depth and genuine advice and concern in all those years thank you

I will keep you posted if and when I'm strong enough to see a medical ""professional"" or in my eyes a prat in a stuffy office with 4 mins to spare and a itchy finger over a prescription pad ""sigh ,

[Hidden]

Is it worth changing GPs?? I know that i was begginig to feel incredibly frustrated with my old GP, i felt like he wasnt hugely interested in my quality of life anymore, and was just trying to minimise my meds at any cost. In the end he actually made a very very dangerous decision (to the point when my endocrinoligist realised what he'd done she got me an appt that day and had a bed ready and had even warned critical care incase i was in a state) and i lost confidence in him and so changed GPs, i'm much happier where i am now. And if you moved to a big-ish practice then you can try different GPs within the practice, some are more prescription happy than others!

I think we've all been there with doctors being dreadful - a few sadly seem to think that a medical degree makes them a higher lifeform than the rest of us! Its times like that i wish i could hire out my mum. She is a physio and i once overheard the best argument she had with a doctor who was describing an obvious seiezure (it was atypical presentation, but there is no physical way it could have been faked - far too extreme and beyond her frail capacity) as ""either anxiety or behavioural issues"" and mum was like ""you know you can say you dont know, just because you dont have the answer to everything sdoesnt actually make it the patients fault - sometimes there will be things you cant work out, you cant just diagnose everyone as mentally ill because of your inadequacies"" was very very funny! To be fair, this doctor had been wearing her diplomacy nerve all day - and he was a bit of an idiot and had nearly killed someone because he was clearly far superior than a physio and so didnt need to go check her HR wasnt 37....sigh!!

Anyways - just remember youre not alone with it. The vast vast majority of doctors are great, and do what they do coz they actually care about paients and their wellbeing. the really sad part is that they tend to not stick in our memories so much as the idiots!!

I do really think you should get your bloods checked out, LABA overdose isnt great for your electrolytes!! Even if you rang 111 and went to out of hours they could check you over??

Hope you feel better again soon