Ventolin treatment

[Tomcat98]

I have bronchiiectasis and have recently got more breathless, antibiotics have not helped. Have now been prescribed ten puffs of Ventolin using a spacer every four hours. Has any one else had this prescribed and did it help?

[Hidden]

Hi Tomcat. I have had bronchiectasis all of my life. That seems an awful lot of ventolin to me. I have fostair twice a day and spiriva once per day. I have a ventolin reliever which I rarely used. Actually when I do the breathing tests the inhalors make very little difference. Inhalors seem to work much better for people with COPD whose breathlessness has a different cause to ours ( mostly, although the conditions can overlap)

in 2011 I started getting more breathless and a different type of breathlessness to when I had an exacerbation. The docs kept saying that I wasn't handling my bronch propery. (after 59 years of doing so !!). Eventually I persuaded my GP to send me to a heart man. I had developed AF and left ventricular dilated cardiomyopathy. It is now controlled with drugs.

Do you have a consultant for your bronch? Are they a bronch specialist? If not, you do need to get your GP to send you to a good one. Very few doctors really know and understand bronch but unfortunately they are reluctant to say so. Good luck. I hope that you get to the bottom of it.

[Tomcat98]

Thanks , might have to go back to my GP if this has no effect.

[y_not]

I have COPD and was told to use it as & when needed. I was told to "try a couple of puffs" and if you need to you can take up to 10, BUT I was warned that well before 10 I may feel light headed, get shakes, palpitations and dizzy. (They were right). I also mentioned this last week during a PR assessment and the physiotherapist agreed to the recommendation.

Provided that you are sat down (so you don't fall over) it's actually quite a nice sensation (and it does help the breathing for me)

Good luck

[Tomcat98]

Yes I do get shaky, have to sit down for about half an hour when I take the ten puffs!

[knitter]

Hi tomcat, are you taking a preventer inhaler as well....or any other medications.

Still standings advice is very good.

[Tomcat98 in reply to knitter]

Yes, also taking Seretide and Incruse inhalers as well. Thanks for your reply.

[Billiejean_2]

I've heard of that as an emergency measure if you find yourself suffering from really bad sob and not able to access a doctor or A&E or while you're waiting for help etc. I've never heard of it being prescribed in this way routinely, so obviously I'm behind the times. There's no way I could take 10 swigs of Ventolin without trembling and heart pounding, so I won't be trying that. Have you found it helpful ?

[Tomcat98]

No not yet, I was very surprised when GP said to do this every four hours . Only been doing it since Friday. I'll keep hoping!

[evermore]

Hi Tom, I was told that I could take 8 puffs of ventolin instead of nebulising salbutamol when I was having an exacerbation. That is because that amount of ventolin is about the same amount you would get nebulising 1 vial of salbutamol. This was only short term though and I did not use that much myself, just a few extra puffs. I have bronchiectasis too.

[Tomcat98]

I'm worried about taking ten puffs every four hours, I feel pretty shaky after a couple of days. Thanks for your reply.