Stronger than steroids

[Homely2]

I have had nasty asthma attacks for four days now, as the weather has got cold again.

The asthma nurse says that she will ask the consultants permission to move me on to something stronger than fostair 200, to avoid having to give more pred.

Any ideas as to which inhaler she could be referring to.

[porthos06]

I'm so sorry you're having such a horrible time at the moment ☹Could the nurse be referring to a high dose steroid inhaler like the Relvar 184?

[Troilus]

Sorry to hear things have gone topsey turvey for you Homely. I have no idea what your nurse is thinking of, but I take my Fostair 200/6 two puffs twice a day, but I can also add in extra doses. I use a Fostair 100/6 for my extra doses as this gives me more flexibility according to what my peak flow is doing.

So, in total I can have 1200 of the steroid element, but also still have my blue inhaler to use as necessary.

[RACrally in reply to Troilus]

My Fostair has been changed to Luforbec, it is a small inhaler, looks cheap with a rubbish counter on it.I don't mind that but for the first time ever I have had bad mouth thrush. It's just cleared up now but I've no chance of going back to Fostair because this Luforbec is a lot cheap for the NHS.

[Troilus in reply to RACrally]

My prescription has always stated Fostair 100/6 but until last month I was always sent the Luforbec one. I rang the pharmacist the first time I got one and he told me they couldn’t get hold of the Fostair one. ( No problem getting the Fostair 200/6) I’m hoping from now on that I get the Fostair one. I’m not keen on the Luforbec.

[Muldrew]

hi homely

Sounds nasty

Your nurse could be thinking about Trelegy which I use (I was on Fostair before) Ofcourse there are many other meds but this is what happened to me

Excellent medication it’s a single daily dose with three components

TRELEGY ELLIPTA

contains

fluticasone furoate

Umeclidinnium

Vilanterol

It has stabilised my Asthma/COPD and doesn’t have side effects for me

Good luck

[SuziElley]

There are so many different inhalers and different doctors recommend different ones, each having their favourites. I was recently put onto Trimbow after months of out of control asthma and they were querying COPD. I’m sure they’ll use what they think is best for you. All the best.

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

HI, I'm not sure what she has in mind as full dose Fostair 200/6 (ie 2 puffs twice a day) is considered high dose inhaled steroid (the dosage needed for this is lower than for some other inhalers because it has fine particles. You may know that already but just saying, as it can cause confusion when people look up what high dose ICS is!).

As others have said, it might be a triple one that also includes a long-acting drug similar to Spiriva (long-acting antimuscarinic, or LAMA - works a different way from steroids or the beta-agonists like salbutamol, or the long-acting beta agonist in Fostair - formoterol). Or she might be thinking of adding something like Spiriva separately.

Although it can be helpful for some people to have extra inhaled steroid, it isn't always the best idea to keep increasing steroids if they're not helping enough, so it may be that adding in another type of medication could be more helpful, and that may be what she's thinking.

You could always ring the asthma nurses: 0300 2225800 or WhatsApp [phone] Monday-Friday 0915-5pm (I think not open on bank holidaus though) to chat through the options so you can discuss with your nurse when you see her. Plus asking your nurse what she's thinking of and why she thinks that inhaler would be helpful for you (or why the consultant does).

[Homely2 Administrator]

Might not find out what my asthma nurse is thinking of, as on Friday she left a message on my phone saying that she had prescribed some pred for me.

[Dpotter]

I’ve recently had spiriva added to my regime of 200/6 fostair and montelukast. It’s made a massive difference already. My asthma nurse did mention the triple one with the same ingredients but it only contained the equivalent of the 100 fostair so we decided on the separate ones.

[Bagpiper0304]

possibly spiriva, I was prescribed this inhaler as an alternative to another dose of steroids and it seems to work. I was told I'd have "instant" relief but it wasn't although it does seem to have improved my peak flow.