tiotropium

[Jamesd1234]

hello, I hope eveyone is well.

I have recently had tiotropium added (Braltus), to help deal with my allergic asthma and coughing up mucus mainly at night. I had been putting off taking this medication because I was very nervous about the potential side effects that i had read up , plus symptoms had been getting better due to cold weather and no pollen!

still been having some asthma every few nights and had some mild attacks and mostly coughing phlegm for the last few nights in a row, so thought I would go for it and have just taken my first dose of braltus.

im feeling a little dizzy and had some racing heard and light headedness - put perhaps this could be partly due to my worries and being very nervous about taking it! Although it kind of feels like my lungs are opening up more and a bit like how you feel after taking lots of salbutamol in a bad attack. And similar side effects to that!

Maybe I’m over thinking it and hoping these effects become less over the next few days.

does anyone else find this with braltus / tiotropium?

and if so, is it better to take the once a day dose earlier in the day to let any side effects wear off before going to sleep?

That said , I need it to work best during the night!

Sorry for the ramble ! Thanks

[Troilus]

Hi Jamesd

I used to be on Braltus- I don’t remember any side effects. I seem to remember I took it about 9pm to help with night time symptoms. It was later changed to Spivira Respimat.

[Homely2 Administrator]

I am on spiriva. For me, spiriva is a gentle drug, working in the background. Took at least a month to be effective, with no obvious side effects.

I take it early in the morning.

[Jamesd1234 in reply to Homely2]

Thank you. I think spiriva might be better for me if its a gas inhaler? I have found the braltus to really dry my out and cause me much more asthma and some attacks in the night, compared the last month or so. I'm very reluctant to continue with it

[Bella-Bestia]

Hi,

Personally it didn’t agree with me. I continued to have a high resting heart rate and so discontinued its use after trying it out for a while. We all react differently to medication It may still work for you?

Good luck

B-B

[Jamesd1234 in reply to Bella-Bestia]

Thanks for your reply and sorry to hear it didn’t work well for you. I feel like the side effects have subsided , but I have a very dry throat and the medication made me feel i need to keep coughing more than normal , and had several asthma attacks. I’m going to give it a break and speak to my asthma nurse.

thanks

[Poobah in reply to Jamesd1234]

I tried 2 sister inhalers from the same family of medication. Both affected my voice box to the extent I had to give up singing and I even struggled to talk at times. Spiriva was OK for my asthma and Eklira Genuair very good, but the side effects were bad so had to ditch them. Spiriva gave me high blood pressure and I felt increasingly dizzy. Eklira gave me glaucoma.

[Jamesd1234 in reply to Poobah]

Very sorry to hear that. It sounds like these inhalers might be much better for those with very bad COPD and constant mucus.

[Poobah in reply to Jamesd1234]

I think I was just unlucky as many use LAMA inhalers without experiencing side effects and they've proved to be very effective. The only way to know is to try them out for a few weeks.

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to Jamesd1234]

While obviously it doesn't work for everyone, I've found Spiriva great and I'm not one for producing much mucus - so I don't think these inhalers are only for COPD and excessive mucus. They wouldn't be approved for asthma if they weren't able to show a reasonable balance of efficacy and safety.

I've just seen that Braltus is a powder inhaler with capsules. I never got on with that version of Spiriva either and in fact for Spiriva I think only the soft mist version is approved for asthma (though the capsule can still be prescribed off-label).

I would definitely go back and say you feel like it may be effective but you're having a lot of side effects, and discuss whether the soft mist version may be better.

[Jamesd1234 in reply to Lysistrata]

Thank you . That might be a better one to try . I appreciate you sharing your experience