I've seen lots of folk posting here who have been newly diagnosed with asthma so I thought it'd be interesting for those folks if we all shared our asthma action plans so they could see what we do to stay on top of our symptoms
My asthma type:
Cough-variant with normal SATs and peak flow during exacerbations. Best peak flow is 450, I'm 29.
My old treatment:
Clenil 100, 4 puffs a day; Ventolin before exercise and when required.
My asthma triggers:
Cold weather, high humidity, exercise, laughing, infections
My asthma action plan:
With an increase in symptoms (coughing), needing Ventolin more than three times a week or needing it during the night, or manifestation of illness.
1) Max Clenil dose to 8 puffs a day.
2) If no improvement in 2-3 days, get oral prednisolone course from GP.
But during my last flare-up I totally failed to respond to prednisolone. On the final day of the course I was still needing Ventolin every 90 minutes from 4am onwards. So I had to go back to the GP and was given a Fostair inhaler. Nobody here will probably be surprised to know that my GP didn't explain to me how to manage my asthma with this inhaler. Fortunately some googling found me some Fostair guidelines from NHS Tayside but if I'd been stuck I would have phoned the AsthmaUK helpline again.
My new treatment:
Fostair 100/60, 2 puffs a day.
My new asthma action plan:
In response to same exacerbation hints as above,
1) Increase Fostair up to 4 puffs a day with Ventolin as and when required.
2) If still needing Ventolin in the night etc after that, ditch the Ventolin and start taking Fostair as my only inhaler, up to 8 puffs a day.
3) ??? (I don't know what to do if that doesn't work, I'll need to discuss that with my asthma nurse. I'll keep you posted!)
Share your asthma action plan!