Some asthma drugs make me drowsy all day. I'm also quite sensitive to a lot of drugs.
Until last summer, I'd always only had mild problems ...allergic asthma now and then due to household cleaners, air fresheners, pollen, etc.
Suddenly last June I started getting problems, and used Ventolin, but was told I needed a preventer inhaler too.
They're all steroid based, and although I tried four, I started getting the same symptoms I'd had after getting Ulcerative Colitis & sepsis in 2015 with high dose antibiotics and steroids IV. Got terrible distension (affected breathing too) and severe back and abdominal pain - took months for those side effects to go once the steroids were tailed off.
It seems I'm intolerant to steroids at any dose now.
My asthma nurse has tried many alternatives with various side effects: some inhalers caused a very heavy upper respiratory feeling, and I was told to stop using it right away. She then tried Montelukast, first the adult dose, and then the children's ...both caused me to fall asleep, cough, have a sore throat, and unsettling dreams ...and had me falling asleep at all times of the day, even while trying to work or eat.
Eventually, having exhausted most of what she can think of, she started me on 200mg every 12 hours of Uniphyllin (theophylline). On the first day, I felt some degree of improvement, but not enough, but I carried on for a month as agreed, and did manage two walks with my dog, and then she doubled the dose last week to 400mg every 12 hours. By late afternoon, 5 hours after the first 400mg tablet, I had to go to bed. I felt sick, giddy, had palpitations, and abdominal pain. I slept for three hours and although still giddy, managed until bedtime and then took just a 200mg tablet.
Each day since, I've taken the equivalent of 300mg at lunchtime with food (cutting the 200 and 400 in half), and just 200mg late night before bed. I'm starting to see the nausea, palpitations, and giddyness start to get milder, and the abdominal upset too to a degree, but this too is causing me to fall asleep frequently through the day, and still seem to sleep soundly at night. Not good because I'm getting no work done (I work at home), and very little exercise ...not that I think I can manage much yet. I'm thinking of perhaps taking the higher dose at night, and the lower one at lunch time until things hopefully settle down and I can up the dose a little again. (My asthma nurse is off sick at the moment, but will ask her about it when she gets back ...I'll need a blood test by then anyway).
I'm reluctant to try increasing the dose a little until/unless this sleepiness improves, and am wondering if anyone else has experienced the same sleepiness that I have with both Montelukast, and now Uniphyllin?
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