Flare up

[SwishUK]

Hi guys. So luckily my asthma has been well managed for that past 10 years. Only had a reliever and that was a Bricanyl. Last year I had a flare up when they changed me from Bricanyl to Salamol and had to put me back on a preventative (clenil). That didn’t work so they put me on the Fostsir 100/6.

All has been well till the last couple of weeks. I had my first asthma attack since I was a boy (28 now), out of the blue just as I was going to bed. Went up in the ambulance as my Salamol wasn’t working at all. They gave me steroid tablets for 3 days and said if you get worse either, take these antibiotics or come back to us. Confusing right? Saw my GP next day and she said you don’t have an infection so don’t take antibiotics. She gave me steroids for a further 4 days. I had my second asthma attack last weekend whilst camping for bank holiday, 2am! Wasn’t impressed. Again inhalers had no effect on clearing the asthma, I did collapse and was sick because of the amount of inhaler I took. A&E this time gave me a blood test, said you don’t have a chest infection but you are fighting an infection somewhere. Gave me antibiotics and steroids again for 5 days. Both of these have finished and even whilst completing them I have been needing the Salamol all day. Very tight chested! Asthma appointment booked for 19th June as soonest one.

Now I don’t really know what to do! I’m going to ask for my Bricanyl back though as yes it gave me the shakes and palpitations, but it worked!!

P.S apologies about this being long winded. You try and explain this to people without asthma and they don’t get it. They still see it as a playground condition that gets you out of PE.

[Echoblue]

I am not a medic, but I would be very concerned that they say there is an infection “somewhere” but no one is looking to find out where or why and you haven’t dramatically improved? Personally I would go back to A&E today and specifically ask if it could be sepsis? They will have to see you and investigate if you ask that question. There is a high profile campaign about sepsis at the moment. I hope it isn’t sepsis but I have lost one friend to this condition and I can’t ignore even some of the possible signs without saying something. So many of the symptoms are tricky to pick up on early. I wish you well and hope they can get answers for you and you feel better very soon x

[Thomas45]

I am not a medic either, but have had 45 years experience of asthma.

From what you write your asthma appears to be out of control. You mentioned Fostair. Are you using your preventer inhaler every day, two puffs, twice s day, which is the normal dose?

All my asthma attacks, except one, have been caused by respiratory infections. The sole one was a side effect of a tablet I'd been prescribed for another ailments. That was a totally dry attack, when my lungs felt as if they were closing down. Fortunately I was in a pharmacy when that happened and soon I was en route to hospital.

If you are taking your Fostair as prescribed then you must tell your doctor that it's not working for you.

I use a different preventer inhaler from you. I use it as prescribed 2puffs twice a day. As a result I rarely use by reliever inhaler. I haven't needed to use it at all in the last week. If your preventer is not working for you, it's time to try a different preventer, not rely on your reliever.

[Yatzy]

Thomas45 is right, things should be better for you if you’re prescribed the right preventer for you, and you take it morning and evening, come what may.

I will just add that when my asthma was in a downward spiral, and I was using huge amounts of Ventolin, salbutamol, to no effect, I was swapped onto Bricanyl, which felt like heaven at the time. It worked.

No side effects if keep to four hour gaps as far as poss and max dose of four in 24 hrs. If this doesn’t work for you, you should be on the way to hospital.

I eventually found that I am sensitive to salicylates, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, and salicylates are in Salbutamol (see the ‘sal’ in the name?!) There are also some foods etc to be avoided, like mint....in all toothpastes! Check it out on google if you’re interested.

[SwishUK]

Morning guys. Yes I am prescribed to use the Fostair twice a day with 2 puffs each time. For the past year I have been using 100/6 (the lowest dose) of Fostair fine, but now it seems that wasn’t working and they put me on the 200/6 one. This doesn’t seem to be working also along with the Salamol. I am going to go to the doctors later and see what they say, even though they told me before they are being “de skilled” from asthma and leaving it to the asthma nurses. I should think I’ll probably just get another dose of steroids for the third week running.

[SwishUK]

So just a little update. Went to asthma nurse yesterday and in all honesty she wasn’t much help. She booked me in to see the nurse practitioner that day as well and she was the biggest help. So I have the acid reflux as well and have been taking Omeprazole 20mg for that for the past year, but it’s gettinn worse. She said that they have done research to suggest acid reflux and asthma are linked, meaning as one gets worse it antagonises the other! So she has put me on lansoprazole 15mg to combat this and referred me for an Endoscopy.

They want to bring me down from Fostair 200 and put me back on the Fostair 100, so to help reduce inflammation, they have put me on Montelukast. Also they have changed my rescue inhaler upon request to the Bricanyl as that works for me.

They also did some tests and it would appear I have no more infection! So that’s good news! But if you have acid reflux (heartburn), then go to the doctor or nurse as this will make your asthma worse!!