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?
Ventolin treatment: I have... - Lung Conditions C...
Ventolin treatment
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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.
Thanks , might have to go back to my GP if this has no effect.
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
Yes I do get shaky, have to sit down for about half an hour when I take the ten puffs!
Hi tomcat, are you taking a preventer inhaler as well....or any other medications.
Still standings advice is very good.
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 ?
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!
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.
I'm worried about taking ten puffs every four hours, I feel pretty shaky after a couple of days. Thanks for your reply.