Up and down...do you get this? - Asthma Community ...

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Up and down...do you get this?

18 Replies

Hi,

I'm in the middle of a flare at the moment and was wondering if you all have this happen when your asthma acts up? On Tuesday it was terrible (coughing up phlem, tightness, cough, pain). Went to my asthma doctor quickly and got a handful on inhalers (I have a few things so they had been trying to see if I was all right at a lower dose). So I'm taking flovent and another one, and a rescue inhaler. Anways, Wedneday got better. Didn't take much rescue inhaler. Thursday, bad again. Took more rescue inhaler. Friday still bad. But seriously I'll feel all right, then all of a sudden I don't, then it might get better again. Am I just not taking enough meds? I've almost gone to the hospital twice, but then it got better again so I didn't.

Sometimes it makes me a bit batty.

Bee

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18 Replies

Hi Beethere,

sorry your having so many probs, but i think you really need to go back to your asthma nurse ( make sure they are asthma trained and not just a generally trained- like at my surgery) or your gp.If you have to wait for an appointment you could try going to your pharmacy as sometimes they can be really helpful. You could try a walk in centre but i've found they don't want to know unless your having an asthma attack, if you get into real trouble never hesitate to call an ambulance.

Please go and get it sorted as it will only worsen.

Take care and good luck.

sj

I would go back to your gp and discuss this further. U

You may need to take your reliever more routinely with a plan regarding frequency.

Hi!

I'm doing pretty good today. My chest is much better. I've been using more rescue inhaler than when I'm well, but it's not too bad (except I can tell when it wears off). I will definitely go to the doctor or hospital if I need too. Thanks for making me feel like I'm doing the right thing (it's hard sometimes to make the right decision when I can't breathe...I start second guessing myself, which is bad).

Bee

yep i agree with the others, you need to go see your gp again. i do have ups and down, times when my asthma can be ok one morning and by lunch time tight chested etc then by dinner time i could be fine again;however this is usually a pre-warning to me having a bad few days/weeks x

Update

Hi there,

So my asthma got better and worse for another week, I think. And I finally got into see my GP yesterday. He was very nice, and agreed to give me pred. But he seemed to think that advair (it has seravent and flticasone in it) would put me at higher risk of having a bad attack. I was on it and then switched back to just a steroid inhaler, as it gives me palpitations sometimes. I just am confused by this though, because I would think if I had bad asthma I would be at higher risk of having a bad attack, and then would be more likely to being on a combined inhaler?

Anways, glad my chest is feeling better. Hate taking steroids, but relieved I am too. Thanks for the encouragement. Oh...do you guys have any suggestions for dealing with being moody on pred? It always makes me kind of restless and jittery.

Take care,

Bee

Hi beethere,

Not sure why gp did that the seretide is the long term protector (which smooths and calms your airways and stops them getting irritable and the flixotide is the steroid which helps prevents attacks. You would be better on the combined inhaler,as this will help the attack starting.if you dont feel or you dont get better see if you can see an asthma nurse if you have access to one or go back and to gp and ask to be referred. Gps dont know everything even tho they think they do, but some of them dont know when to refer you on to a cons or asthma clinic. Another thing to do is read the leaflet/pdfs you can order off site ( they are free to order) and read those. Also ring and speak to the auk helpline as they if they suggest you go back to gp, you can mention you phoned them and they are concerned your not on the right meds etc. Dont be afraid to go back to your gp and tell him, if you prefer take a friend, relli, partner withyou for support. You may need to stand up to him if you have to- you know your self better than he does. Im having fun with pred at mo and cant stop eating:0, i'm hoping it will stop when i finish the pred, but i'll have to see

Witha bit of luck you may find the moods will go when you finish the pred and it can be a side effect.

Good luck and take it easy

sj xx

@wolfspirit

re : ""Not sure why gp did that the seretide is the long term protector (which smooths and calms your airways and stops them getting irritable and the flixotide is the steroid which helps prevents attacks.""

Seretide is the combination of

Woody som,

Yeah i know, i was saying i cant understand why beethere was left on a steroid only inhaler, when the serevent has both which will therefore give much better protection,than the steroid inhaler on its own. By calming the twitchy airways it is less likely that triggers that enter the lungs will start of the asthma and reducing attacks.I was taking just a steroid inhaler and was having attacks every day when i changed to the combined inhalers my asthma has calmed down and lessened my attacks.having a combined inhaler doesnt increase your chance of asthma attacks like the gp is telling beethere.

wolfspirit, sorry to be picky but serevent isn't the combination inhaler. you mean seretide as thats the combi inhaler. but i do agree, the addition of the LABA (Serevent) would be beneficial.

If the GP said that the combi inhaler would increase the risk of attack I'd change GPs, I used seretide for a year and had great success with it,

Hi woody som,

No thats ok, i think were talking about diff meds here. I meant seretide not serevent, think i'm losing it a bit and trying to confuse everyone. Did i a do a good job? lol

sj

Seretide unfortunately made asthma worse . The flixotide aspect that courses the problem increase in all of asthma symptoms. Thankfully the pylmicoyrt works and symbicort even better !!!!

Hi gussypoos,

Im glad you found what worked for you best. Once you find a good med its really great and you feel in control i took the flixotide but it didnt help. when i went on seretide it didnt control asthma at all, now on symbicort which helps but asthma still putting up a fight. Im not using on smart as i had to overdose to control asthma attacks.

sj

Hi there,

I get what you mean. I think I do better on seretide too. I was on just the steroid only inhaler for years, and always had to use my rescue inhaler to exercise. I tried taking symbicort, but the LABA in that gives me really bad anxiety for some reason, so seretide works the best for me. I'm supposed to see my GP on Thursday again (before I saw her partner so I know this doctor better). Right now I'm doing all right, though I'm generally having to stay indoors. Then early September (in about three weeks) I'm supposed to see my asthma doctor. Although I moved, so I don't know if she would be comfortable in telling me what to do over the phone, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for understanding. I don't know anyone here that has asthma bad enough to take as many meds as I do. But I keep trying to tell my new doctors here that this is pretty normal for me. Then thing is that my regular breathing tests show I have airway reversibility (asthma), but I had another test that says I don't. So while my docs are still mulling this over, meanwhile I'm perfectly miserable and sick. So right now I think I'm going to just take plenty of short acting bronc. with all of my steroids.

Luckily I'm been sleeping pretty well with all the meds. I do hate though how my lungs get so twitchy just the slightest thing will set them off.

Bee

P.S. I am in the states so I can't really call the AUK adviceline. I hope you don't mind me hanging out here. I've looked and there are very few places where there is such a nice experienced group of asthmatics to hang out with online.

Most of the sites I've seen are of people wondering if they might have asthma (which is great when you're new and scared), but having lived with this for a while I'm happy to have found a place where there are people who understand and can relate to needing to go in every once in a while to get sorted out.

I'm not sure why I can't find something equivilent in the states, but I think it has something to do with you guys have the NHS and us having more private websites that aren't as well centralized and run.

Take care.

Bee

Bee,

I used Seretide for a year, also Singulair but still used my Ventolin for exercise. I know the US have a different method of prescribing some meds. They don't recommend using ventolin before exercise where's we do in the UK, also in the states Singulair is used just like here for exercise induced asthma, but here it's taken daily unlike the US where they prescribe it to be taken couple hours before exercise.

If you looked just at my ventolin usage you'd think I wasn't very well, but then if you see I do a fair bit of exercise it puts that use into perspective, at least for the UK medical teams. Technically if I exercised daily that would be 14-28 puffs a week, 2 puffs before, and for me I take 2 more after swimming, as I suffer from chlorine induced asthma.

Hi Woody,

Thanks for the note! I think it's actually similar here. I've been told to take ventolin before exercise before, it's just I find I don't need it if I'm taking serevent, and have the LABA working. I do take singulair daily, and it definitely helps. Mostly I guess I'm inclined to get heart palpitations with all the LABAs and ventolin, and either don't mind because I know it's pretty much a harmless side effect and I can BREATHE, or it just drives me batty because I feel horrid. Not really an inbetween. So if I'm getting palpitations, I try to do with a little less beta agonist, although sometimes I really need it so obviously this can get a bit dicey.

Been a bit of a rough day. I walked outside yesterday to run errands, then again today for church. And it's about 98% humidity and it was raining....I'm supposed to be allergic to mold so I could barely breath. Today was my last dose of pred so at a bit of a loss. I guess I can go in and see my family doctor (who probably won't know what to do with me), or I can call my old asthma doc and see if she'd be willing to tell me what to do, since she knows me best. Ug. I also thought of going to the ER. I think my asthma is definitely out of control, but not life-treatening. Sorry about all the complaining I just hate how this can go on like this.

Bee

Hi Bee,

welcome, it nice to have you join us. Sorry to hear your suffering too, its hard to know what to do for the best sometimes. I do think you need to get help as your asthma isn't under control, try talking to your old asthma dr and if s/he's not happy to advise you s/he'll advise you to go to family dr.You need to see someone to get your asthma sorted out and under proper control but it Sounds your having the same probs as we do here with drs/asthma nurses. I know its difficult but can you avoid going out on days that are going to cause you probs? or reduce going out on those days.You could also look for air quality and weather alerts which are sent to your computer everyday may help .Also have you thought or looked into dehumidifiers/air sterilisers, to help indoors and maybe a personal air purifier of when you go out. theres also some nose guards called nasalair guards and wondered if these would help when you go out. Have you seen the dummies book of asthma? thats a good book but is written for the american market so that might give you some contacts and info you may be able to use.

sj

Hi SJ,

Those are some good thoughts! Yes I think it is similar here, with really needing a good asthma nurse/doctor who's on top of things...it makes all the difference.

I am happy to say that I called my family doctor today, and that she was kind enough to at least give me a taper off the pred. (so I took 50m today, and then 40 tomorrow etc.). I also have a ton of seretide at home, so I started taking that on my own instead of just the steroid inhaler. So it's still been a bit rocky, but today was definitely better than yesterday. I also went and picked up some face masks, as I'm in the middle of moving and stirring up some dust.

About the weather alerts...that is a good idea. I know I'm supposed to be allergic for mold, but it seems around here all the weather service ever does is pollen counts (which is helpful some but not as much). But if it is a bad pollution day, there must be a way to figure that out.

I do have the book Asthma for Dummies, but I must say it is nice to hear from real people too!

Take care,

Bee

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