Ummm…

[Singinglouder]

Went to see the asthma nurse this week - I’m not getting on with Trimbow - and offered to show her my peak flow diary. ‘Why are you measuring your peak flow?’ she asked, with genuine curiosity. The asthma nurse 😳

[Troilus]

Yes. I’ve had that - from a doctor. I had covid and peal flow dropped. I thought it would come back up once I was clear but it didn’t. I had an appointment with the GP who advised me not to take it as people can get “fixated” on it and it is not healthy! ( My peak flow was in the red at 190!)

[peege in reply to Troilus]

ffs 🙄, were all such morons aren't we grrrr

[Poobah in reply to Troilus]

I wonder if this GP would say a similar thing to a diabetic patient..."don't monitor your blood sugar, you can get fixated & it's not healthy"? Hope you were able to recover well Troilus, in spite of this GP?

[Poobah]

I really despair sometimes when I hear about other people's experiences with their doctors and asthma nurses. I too have been given a different inhaler on trial and my asthma nurse impressed on me how important it was to take my peak flow over the trial period so she can review my progress, or lack of it, in 6 weeks time. I know already that the inhaler doesn't suit me & the PF readings support this, side effects being grim. In fact, she gave me a new PF as my old one had seen better days.

But if doctors & nurses are like this about asthma, are they similarly complacent about other conditions?

[Singinglouder in reply to Poobah]

This was a new nurse - think I’ll ask to see my usual one next time!

At least she agreed with me about the Trimbow we were reviewing (without seeing the peak flows!), and I’m back on the old inhaler - like you, couldn’t live with the side effects and it wasn’t actually helping anyway.

[Poobah in reply to Singinglouder]

Not only do we have to try out news meds, but asthma nurses too! 😆 Always good to have options.

[Beth_19]

mum because doctors and nurses keep saying how important peak flow is. Honestly asthmatics cannot win. We take our peak flow too much, we take it too little, it’s too high, it’s too low, I wish they would pick something and stick with it