Fostair, sereflo v seretide

[ChestyCough1]

Any body been swapped from seretide? earlier in year Asthma nurse tried to swap me to fostair but too many side effects. Recently the pharmacy lead from CCG swapped me to Sereflo. Been on 2 weeks of steroids and chlarythromycin due to exacerbation of asthma...... coincidence?

[Jaffer-cake]

What are the side effects of fostair? That’s what I’m on but doesn’t seem to be doing anything for my bad chest infection!

[ChestyCough1 in reply to Jaffer-cake]

Dizziness and hand shakes. Taken off this in April and out back on Seretide

[bess7771]

to chestyncough. try getting a nebuliser. nebulise with ventolin nebules morning and night to open the airways to the max. then take intal ( cromolyn 2 puffs as a preventer. then rinse throat with water, or better still, take 5 mls of ventlin syrup, and the stickiness will clear ur throat of the intal. with that treatment, you shd be improved. jusgt try it. get ur doctor to prescribe it. nebuliser will cost a few hundy but uts worth it. get a good one, dont go for cheapy. get one of those they uses in rest homes and hospitals, i have one, its great. brand is medic turbonet 2, made by clement clarke, or clark

[ChestyCough1 in reply to bess7771]

Thanks

[strongmouse in reply to bess7771]

I found a spacer helped with minimises side effects of fostair. Never tried a nebuliser but can imagine it helps. Having said that my recent high blood pressure readings makes me wonder if this is s/e from fostair, but I'll wait 'till new year. Interesting about fostair being cheaper - but not good if it doesn't work for you Chesty Cough!

[awilso in reply to strongmouse]

Just about to have a conversation with my Doc about an increase in blood pressure with Fostair

[strongmouse in reply to awilso]

Saw my doctor this week and she wants to monitor my BP for the time being but agreed it might be linked to Fostair, but as it is managing asthma to see how I go.

[awilso in reply to strongmouse]

I changed to a new generic seretide Airflusal. There is no question it’s the Fostair in my case and I certainly don’t want a second blood pressure tablet. I’ll finish this canister if Fostair and then trial the new stuff. I think Airflusal might be better as the corticosteroid has a half life of 10 hours which is the longest one yet.

[strongmouse in reply to awilso]

Thanks thats helpful. I will certainly keep in mind the possibility of switching to seretide Airflusal. I hate changing medications in case they cause worse problems, but useful to know. I'd appreciate knowing how you get on with it.

[awilso in reply to strongmouse]

Hi, I have moved across to Airflusal. A very clean inhale, catches a little at the back of the throat but works really well. Came off the extra high blood pressure tablets and blood pressure back to normal within 24 hours so I’m pretty clear it was the Fostair causing the rise in BP.

[chelsea7777]

Hi, I’m currently on Seretide, have been for years it suits me, had a letter from GP saying they want to change me to Fostair as it’s cheaper!! I’m seeing my asthma nurse for my annual review on 2/1/18 and I’m going to refuse to change as I’m prone to side effects on most things even over the counter medication, why should I have to swap from a medication that suits me just to please the NHS pockets!! Hope you get your medication sorted soon. Merry Christmas everyone

[Lisacharman]

I would say not I didn’t get on very well when I got changed over I was on symbicort then I got changed to flutiform then to fostair and then now back to symbicort I have been under ear nose and throat since because of oral thrush was so bad I had biopsy’s to make sure I was on correct treatment and not been able to stop fluconazole in 2 years due to all the changes

[StLouis12]

Yes, I was changed to Sereflo in March and thought straight way that it didn't seem to be working as well as Seretide. As my asthma is quite mild have Put up with it until this morning. Managed to persuade a new doctor to change my prescription back to Seretide this morning. She mentioned that she would perhaps be in trouble for doing this.

[Shekaida]

As a life long asthmatic, the changes in drugs over seventy years has been huge. However there is now a sudden rush on to get sufferers onto cheaper medicines to save a few pounds. My most recent change was from Seretide 250mcg blasts twice a day to Fostair. Since the change now some two months, my blood pressure has gone through the roof, 171/90. The only change in my lifestyle was the drug change, since my GP is now into oh we will have to do something about that, I am going to suggest going back on Seretide, the proof will be somewhere down the road! I concur with all those whose experiences with GPs is that we, as individuals appear to be the only ones who have the full picture and need to make sure our voices are heard, even if you have to be downright rude, to make sure we get the correct and full treatments. So, try things but make sure you do not just put up with a treatment if it is not working for you, shout and if necessary, shout loud!

[HungryHufflepuff in reply to Shekaida]

I hadn’t heard of fostair until I was changed onto it from serevent 6 months ago. Now I’m reading that a whole lot of people are being changed onto fostair. I immediately became quite ill and got progressively worse, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I had horrendous side effects. It got to the point where simple things like brushing my teeth or getting into bed left me so breathless I needed several minutes to recover. On several occasions I explained this to the nurse but was told everyone is happy with fostair, or no one else has complained about fostair. Eventually about a month ago I saw a doctor and was taken off the fostair and changed onto Spiriva Respimat and seretide. After just one day I started to feel better and could breathe. I feel even more indignant now to think the whole thing was brought about just because fostair is cheaper. I was so ill with fostair that I seriously thought I was dying. I know fostair works brilliantly for some people but it didn’t for me and I’m a little dismayed it took 6 months of feeling so ill before anyone accepted that it wasn’t working. I was put on Pred and my peak flow got worse and worse until it was 120, surely that in itself was evidence fostair wasn’t suiting me, let alone all the other problems I was experiencing. I hope you can get back onto seretide and start feeling better too.