I'm really struggling every morning. I wake up with my chest tight (usually having been up once in the night too), take my 2 inhalers (brown one makes me cough). Settles down a bit while drinking my cup of tea/showering. Worsens on Metro and by getting to work my chest is tight and painful again. Take blue inhaler. Settles down for about an hour, then worsens again, take blue inhaler, and then it seems to be mostly ok again from then on.
This is really driving me mad. If I'm just at home I can sit it out for longer, but at work it's much harder. And on Sundays it's difficult too - I sing in a church choir, and lately I've really struggled to sing the morning services, which is really important to me.
Am I using my blue inhaler too much? It is giving some relief, just not for long.
Sorry for moaning, this has turned into a bit of a pity party hasn't it?
Hi please go and see your asthma nurse as i never did in the right time and this resulted in this massive flare up i've currently had. the Doctor's at the emergency room gave me spiriva and this has turned things around for me. however my evenings are terrible now and i'm going back again to the asthma doctor. take care c
I'd definately see the asthma nurse/doctor. I had a similar problem when I was taking Pulimicort (was using blue inhaler 4-5 times a day) so she switched me to seretide. I rang the AUK helpline first, she said it definately wasn't right to be using the blue inhaler 5 times a day so see the nurse ASAP.
Welcome to the bumpy (and expensive) ride of being newly diagnosed and trying to sort out your meds!!
Good luck xxx
that's the same situation i had with Ventolin and that's when the spiriva came in and that now keeps me at bay until the dreaded evenings when it all kicks off for me.
Thanks. My GP wanted me to see the asthma nurse in a couple of weeks to give the brown inhaler time to kick in. I don't know whether to book an appointment for next week, which is earlier than GP said. I don't want to be seen to be making a fuss about something that, until a couple of weeks ago, I had almost grown to accept.
Luckily for me, it's not going to be an expensive time finding the right stuff, I have a pre payment certificate - if I didn't my other meds would bankrupt me! I already get 6 prescription items a month...
I just had to take my 4th dose of the day, and will probably need another when I get home. Ugh.
that's the same situation i had with Ventolin and that's when the spiriva came in and that now keeps me at bay until the dreaded evenings when it all kicks off for me. Might be worth checking out with a qualified asthma nurse or doctor as something might need switching or increasing.
I thought exactly the same which is why I phone AUK first to check I wasn't worrying about nothing. She said 'make an appointment with the nurse next week or so to discuss it', then asked how much blue inhaler I was using, when I said 4 or 5 times a day, she said 'no, make an appointment tomorrow'. When I saw the nurse she said I'd done exactly the right thing, so get booked in much sooner. The AUK nurse even said that at that quanitity of blue inhaler I might even need a course of oral steroids to gain control, fortunately it hasn't come to that yet though!!
I know how you feel, before diagnosis we were carrying on with 'normal' life accepting our tight chest and difficulty breathing as normal, suddenly someone puts a label on things and its all a bit strange. I find it hard knowing when to take my blue inhaler as I'd have just carried on as usual before diagniosis so I usually wiat until its much worse before taking it, I'm slowly learning to take it straight away now. Afterall, you can't cause harm if you take it when you didn't really need to, better safe than sorry.
Glad you have pre-payment, I'm gonna look at getting it I think.
Take it easy xxx
hi september, i think all asthma sufferers should have pre-payment cover. i wish i spent more time taking care of my asthma when i was in the mild to non existent stages. i'm now struggling to get it controlled in the chronic asthma stages. don't ignore the little things in my experience as they usually lead to something huge!
Hi piglet,
its really hard to know when you need to see the gp. You dont think your""ok"" but when you speak the the helpline or asthma nurse, they say should see someone. We are all guilty of trying to carry on when we shouldn't, but i think a lot of this is due to others ignorance and we're making a fuss. But if your having so much trouble i would contact the helpline for advice or arrange to see nurse/ gp. There is a quiz on site, theres a about 5 questions you answer about your asthma and use of reliever and you get result back telling you how controlled you are. The reliever rule of thumb is if you have to use it more than 3 times a week then you need an asthma review, also the fact its affecting you during the night i think you need to book an appointment asap. If your reacting when going out o work/leisure you may be reacting to the pollutants in the environment so speak to nurse/gp about his too, maybe antihistamines/theophylline or something like this may help. Have you looked on the site for the indoor/outdoor triggers and weather advice.But please dont think your moaning, we all understand what you are going through and wish luck getting things sorted.
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