Hi, I'm pretty new here. I had childhood asthma, and by asthma, all I really mean is that from time to time I was a little bit wheezy. I only ever had a blue inhaler and it would always work and I could forget about it for months and even years.
To give a background on my health, I've never smoked and ran a half marathon in September in 1 hour 38 mins and had no problems at all. I've continued to run but not as frequent, about 3 times a week.
However, since mid-October this year I have been wheezy every day and had to use my blue inhaler up to three times a day. I started on the brown inhaler, two puffs in morning and night but no improvement.
Then upped my dose to 4 puffs in morning and night and still not much improvement.
I have now been prescribed fostair which I take one puff in the morning and one at night. I have also been referred for a chest x-ray as this type of asthma has never happened to me before.
My only symptom is wheezing, to be honest. I'm fine at night, I'm not really breathless so it's still quite tame, but it's just the fact that I get wheezy about every 4-6 hours.
I know there are people who have much worse asthma but it's really starting to bother me. I'm so sick of hoping that today will be the day my wheezing will stop but it doesn't. I constantly worry that it's something else and I'm quite anxious about this chest x-ray that it will show something bad.
Today is my first day of using fostair and I'm hoping to god this does the trick. It seems to be working so far, but I feel a little bit wheezy now.
How long did it take for people for fostair to improve their symtpoms? I just want this to be controlled so I can stop my constant state of worry.
Many thanks.
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Cjtucker91
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I can see why you are concerned and thanks for this information. I think I know why they have changed you from a brown steroid inhaler which deals with any inflammation inside your lungs to a combination inhaler because fostair has 2 medicines in it.
It has newer and finer particle steroid in it( usually a small dose but because it is a finer particle size you get potentially better delivery into the lower airway giving better protection)
The second medicine is a long acting bronchial dilator which hopefully will work on your wheeze as it is very similar to the blue reliever (short acting inhaler) which does work on your wheeze but only lasts for 4 hours. where as this one in the fostair works for 12 hours which is why you take it twice a day every day.This may take a week or 2 or it may work straight away it just depends.
It sounds like you don't have any shortness of breath, tightness or coughing which is good as this indicates that your airway are calm and not inflamed. sometimes people only have one symptom to have asthma and I would be thinking the chest xray is precautionary.
I would say that asthma airways change over time and this is quite normal as it is a variable condition and medicines need to move alongside how the airways are currently behaving.
It's great that you running as this is so good for healthy lung function.
Lastly if your fostair is an aerosol I would advise you use a spacer which you can purchase at your local pharmacy with good technique.this will deliver more medicine down onto the lungs.
Thank you so much for you reply. It definitely helps me feel a lot better reading the full details about it all. I'll go buy a spacer tomorrow to ensure I'm getting more medicine. I'm a bit of a hypochondriac at times, hence the worrying so it does put me at ease reading this.
Hi. I have been using fostair since Febuary I think its great and worked almost straight away but took about 2 weeks to get full benefit. It is best through a spacer but before you go out to buy one your doctor or nurse can prescribe you one. So if you get free prescriptions or on pre payment its worth calling your surgery to do a prescription for you to pick up.
Hopefully this helps and good luck with the fostair.😊
Thanks. Today has definitely been my best day so far, i felt a bit wheezy after going for a long walk with my dog and took my blue but I've been fine since.
I actually acted pretty quickly and bought a spacer from boots and was £8, I pay for prescriptions too wouldn't have made a difference but thanks for your reply!
Fostair is two ingredients as already stated the long acting bronchodilator works within 90 seconds of inhaling however the steroid takes 3-6 weeks but being right Chested and wheezy every 4-6 hours is a good sign you need more than what you are taking... but it will take some time to get on top of the inflammation
The long acting bronchodilators last for 12 hours and are really good... however my doctor put me on 2 puffs twice a day and every time i tried to reduce to one I ended up in bother so it may be you need more than one puff twice a day
Thanks, yes my asthma nurse told me to see how I get on with one puff and if after two weeks I still need my blue to up to two. Will see how I get on from now
Hi, I was the same as you, niggled during my childhood but really became a challenge in my mid 20s. Sounds like you just needed to add in the steroid component. Please keep taking it, remember that is what is controlling your asthma. Still scares me how so many people think they are ‘better’ once their breathing. Is controlled and stop taking their inhalers. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what happens next
Never tried fostair but I have had a similar experience over the years. I have found that regular asthma checks (twice/year) and the right preventor has done the trick for me.
I have been prescribed Relvar and was using it once/day but I have now found that I don't need it every day so only use it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.
Hi Cjtucker91. I also really struggle with anxiety about my health. I am trying an online CBP programme via the NHS called Silvercloud which is helping. Also, I do a short yoga session every morning following a Youtube video (search "Yoga with Adriene) which helps me to breathe calmly. Anxiety can have a knock on effect on your asthma, so it is a good idea to work on your thought patterns as well as finding the right medication for your asthma.
Hi Jamie. Thanks for all that, I'm definitely going to check everything you said. I've always been an anxious person and I think my health is one way it finds its way out for me. I've started having nocturnal panic attacks as well recently which I think is linked to me being worried a lot during the day so wanting to learn to calm down.
I also have nocturnal panic attacks. I find that "nighttime tea" helps me get back to sleep once I have calmed down. I did try to talk Kalms for a while but I think they ended up making the anxiety worse. You could try a mindfulness app like Headspace? I find that can sometimes freak me out more as I feel disconnected from my body, so I prefer yoga. You could also try writing down your thoughts. I have found it helpful doing Silvercloud as it makes you realise that the anxiety-inducing thoughts that you have can commonly be put into different categories ("catastrophising" or "making assumptions", for example). I won't say too much about it here but you might find a good book about overcoming anxiety in your local library, or ask your GP what support is available. Anxiety is incredibly common for all sorts of people.
Thank you! I know it's something I've needed to address and have times when it's bad (like now) and other times when it's much better. I'm going to start committing to Headspace I think and I do yoga every week actually with work, I find that really helps my breathing. Thank you for all your advice, it's really comforting reading about the help that's out there!
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