Hi,
Just been thinking about my asthma exacerbations and remember the GP coming out to see me at home when I was small and giving me an injection which put me to sleep and calmed my breathing down.. Anyone know what it was and how it worked?
Sian
Xoxoxo
Hello,
once a doctor gave me Morphin to calm me down. A other time it was Tavor. But Tavor was an tablet. I get tired from both. At work we give Tavor to patients befor sugery to calm down.
Don't know if that was given more often to asthmatics in 1980's. Today they don't give that normaly during an attack because of the risk the asthmatic could stop breathing. It affects the brathing centrum (don't know the word in english could be another).
It probably wasn't the same thing but around 1989/90 time I had a really severe attack, probably my worst ever. I couldn't move so called out the doc who injected me with something (2 drugs I'm sure he said). My arms were black & bruised for about a fortnight after.
The thing I recall though isn't drowsiness but it created a coughing fit the likes of which I'd never had in my life. I honestly thought my lungs were collapsing & load of gunk came up...even when my lungs seemed empty of air I couldn't stop coughing.
I have no idea what that was but hopefuly it's discontinued & replaced by something better!!
Well that was helpful?
Sure hope it has been discontinued.
Back in the 60's I was taken to a & e having had an asthma attack on the London underground. Whatever the doc gave me sent me to sleep for about an hour I think - I was about 12, my mum and sister were with me - ironically I was on my way to an outpatient's appointment at UCH. I always thought it was adrenalin he gave me, but I don't know where I got the idea from. I'm sure there were other times when I went to sleep after treatment, but I can't remember any details now. Jan
I was given an injection for a severe asthma attack in the early eighties, but it certainly didn't put me to sleep. Whilst it calmed the attack, I continued to have problems with breathing until I left the room I had been sleeping in (in the digs of a student friend). We found out later that the bed I'd been using was riddled with dust mites.
Eeeeuch! I know there are probably dust it's everywhere around but don't like thinking about them. It is like fleas. Once you start talking about them you get itchy.
Sian
Xoxoxox
My asthma history goes back to early fifties. My first inhaler was a huge plastic thing with a great black rubber bulb, the kind if item you'd see in a medical museum. When I was a little older I was enrolled on a programme for children with asthma. The treatment was ultra violet rays. We'd stand in a ring round this lamp, in our knickers and wearing goggles. Each week we'd be moved a little nearer the lamp. Anyone else had that? But what was of enormous help was the breathing exercises, just the same as the ones you get at PR. They have stood me in good stead for the following sixty years, and as a consequence I have never panicked in a asthma exacerbation. And use them now for the very different breathing problems that I have since the PEs. In the early seventies I had adrenalin injections, but I don't remember it knocking me out. Also, amynophilin suppositories (?). Anyone had those?
Ah, those were the days. Another half century and all the stuff we take now will have been superseded and will produce amazement and incredulity to the next generation of doctors.
All the best
K xxx
Oh I so remember the bulb inhalers. I never had one but watched my dad take one most of my childhood. When I got my first inhaler (aged 8 or 9 alhough dianosed at 3!) it was an Intal Spinhaler & I was devastated because I wanted one like my dad's.
I was just going to say I had the Intal Spinhaler too. I am going to ask my Doc what this injection could have been. I couldn't say whether it was meant to put you to sleep it could have been that once my breathing calmed down I slept as quite often I had been awake for days and nights on end. When I say the Doc gave me phials to take to Norway with me they were actually more like large ampoules. You know the sort you used to get and you cut the end off and there was like a Vicks type smelling liquid inside? Well that sort of thing and almost the same colour but about 2 inches long? Maybe that is how the medication for injection was packaged in those days not in the tubes we have now.i don't know. I just started thinking about it because of being awake the other morning. I am a wake now because I was so tired going to bed last night I forgot to take my inhalers woke at 4 remembering and thought oh well that is good and then slowly a wheeze started so got up and took them. Think that was alll in my mind then you know as when I woke I was breathing just fine! Anyway, put some washing on so time not wasted.
Sian
Xoxoxo
My Asthma and Eczema medication history goes back to the sixties onwards. Most of my sixties I cannot remember because I was given sedating antihistamine. In the late sixties, early seventies I was given weekly steroid injections as well as alupent tablet and the spinhaler. Also, I remember I had aminophyllin suppositories. They tried to desensitise me from grass pollen, but had a severe reaction and ended up on adrenalin in Hospital. On the children's Ward they had a room which had a fantastic machine in it which took all the nasty things out of the air. It was huge, but it really worked if the attack was allergy related rather than infection. Problem was you couldn't take it home. In the seventies I was involved with trialing steroid inhalers, and have been on them ever since...
The steroid I sections were given to me by my Mum every week. She practised on an orange. I looked more like a little boy than girl with a huge round face and I was always hungry. I am also quite small, but my Mum was only 5ft 1inch, so not sure if the steroids were responsible for that. I have been on ventolin/sambutamol ever since I was about 12, and theophyllin/uniphyllin since I was a about 20.
I am now 55.
Ah same age as me. I had my first course of steroids prednisolone when I was 10. I had been poorly for about 8 weeks and my Dad took me to see a private lung consultant. That is when I started on Intal. I don't remember requiring many course of steroids from then on but possibly had a couple. I remember having injections of antihistamines every week or ten days. Not sure they worked as I wasn't I'll anyway. I can't remember when I went onto the Ventolin inhaler but then had a really bad attack at 21 and was hospitalised. That was when I was given both Ventolin and the brown becotide inhaler. Sometime later after a bad attack that was changed to the red coloured beclomethasone inhaler. Then my ex husband and I moved to Oxfordshire and everything kicked in. Hay fever, asthma rhinitis, sinusitisthe lot. doc said the Thames valley is a dust bowl so to be expected and we also lived near hay and pasture. L ots of different inhalers tried and discarded and can't remember what steroid inhaler I ended up with, whatever it was has been changed twice since then. Currently on seretide and flixotide as Doc thought splitting the steroid up would help me the last time I was really bad with an attack. Then when Bronchiectasis diagnosed told to halve the amount of flixotide. So still doing that but told might as well go back to taking a single inhaler with the same dose in a single pufwhich I have got but finishing off the current inhalers I have as it is the same dose but have to take 2 puffs of one inhaler and one of the other. It will save a lot of time when I am on the new inhaler. LOL.
Hi,
I also have been on ventolin since it became available. I would be interested to know if you feel there have been any side effects from the medications you have been on for so long and how well the asthma has been controlled over that time.
The steroids have definitely led to thinning skin and hair. I used to have a lot of hair even though each individual strand was fine hairdressers used to complain about how much there was. Now I can dry my whole head in about 3 minutes if I use a dryer - and I have shoulder length hair. Try to let it dry naturally as dryers,, mousses and too much stuff tends to weaken it further. Although I do have thinner skin I don't think I take longer to heal but a normal cut which would not normally leave s Mark now quite often does. I have always bruised easily so can't blame that on the steroids . When I have to take ventolin a lot I tend to get palpitations and shakes but this has not affected heart rate as it returns to normal. When on extra steroids when I am ill with an infection or something I get shakes and palpitations from them and the last few times I have been on prednisolone this year they have dramatically affected my sleep. Having said that sInce I turned 21 these medications have been life savers for me.
Sian
Xoxoxox
Hi,
Thank you for your info. I also can't sleep well with prednisolone but I understand what you mean by life saving. It's good they are there when needed.
I have severe mood swings, put on weight, got a round face, and generally have a lot of hair, even on my face. My skin is paper thin and i bruise easily. I get acid reflux unless i take my tablet, the name of which has slipped my mind. My immune system has been affected so much this year by the steroids and antibiotics that they delayed releasing me from hospital for a week,and i was told to stay away from other people for another week. They gave me broad spectrum antibiotics as an infant which damaged my teeth. Had to have them removed at the age of 20. I have bad 6 courses of steroids so farthis year. My lungs are now permanently damaged,and no, i did not smoke. The Asthma is controlled more or less, but the permanent damage has left me breathless all the time. Spiriva has helped a great deal. Ventolin does not work very well anymore. My peakflow iis 180, sometimes getting upto 200 if i am lucky. I get thrush quite often as I am now on antbiotics all the time. I had a lung function reversinility test two years ago, which showed that ventolin will only improve my Asthma by 10 per cent now because of the lung scarring. Hope this is of interest. During my twenties to forties it was mostly wellcontrolled. I get stressed very easily. Great website by the way.
Cheers Anne
Compared to you Anne I am getting off lightly then. Sorry to hear that you now get very little relief.
Sian
Xoxoxo
I've never had an injection specifically for asthma but i had 2 keloid scars on my back that the doctor said needed to be injected to reduce their size / itchiness.
As it happened when i went for those injections i was really struggling with my asthma and the doctor said he was going to inject hydrocortisone into my back which was the same stuff they would've given me for bad asthma.
After i'd had the injections i went home and my breathing felt a lot calmer and i was able to actually sleep properly for a couple of hours - which i hadn't been doing for a few days!!
2 birds with one stone as they say!!
That is interesting. I love your name little miss
I was on the Intal Co spinhaler as well. It helped to keep my asthma under control for about eighteen years - until I moved to a different part of the country in fact.
Unfortunately wasn't born until 92. But this sounds like what I need right now!
And why do people feel the need to tell me a good nights sleep will make me better, how hard is it to understand I can't lie down! 💤
Heyho clinic in the morning (they should really invent a fingers crossed emoji)
Yes a few months ago that is what I was thinking. I remember having this a few months after I was first married back in 1981 - the last time I had this. My husband was amazed because I had spent weeks wheezing and not sleeping the Doc came out gave me this jab and I slept on the couch for the rest of the afternoon and my breathing was "normal" according to hubby. Still after about another week I ended up in hospital but that was a good thing because I had my inhalers changed.
Hope your clinic visit goes/went well.
Sian
Xoxoxoxox
It always amazes me how long I can survive without sleep!!
Thank you I'm heading there now and I'm not a happy bunny this morning which is a change normally on clinic appointments I'm like the perfect patient Ha! Xx
Must be back now! How did it go?
I have a sinus infection but they can't give me anything for it, the best thing to do is get some vic apparently mix a spoonful of it in boiling water and inhale it! If I'm no better tomorrow I need to go back and see the emergency nurse l. I'm not sure why a day makes a difference. I got told I shouldn't go to work. Makes me laugh I'm too ill to go to work but they won't give me anything and decided it was safe to give me a flu jab. Hmm... I tried going into work but had to come home as couldn't cope with breathlessness and pain in my head any longer.
Short answer waste of time xx
Oh sometimes they are just useless! Have you tried sudafed tablets or sudafed spray for sinus. They work really well - can't take both at the same time. Usual thing if you need to take them for longer than 3 days see your Doc. I use menthol crystals as they are stronger than Vicks and last longer as you only need to use one crystal at a time. Will blow your head off if you use more! I thoroughly recommend them though. You could also use a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil in the water or Olbas oil and Olbas inhaler. Quite often you can get these cheaper in chemists like Super Drug and Savers.
Hope you are better soon
Sian
Xoxoxox
Thanks for all the advice! I'd been taking Sudafed for two days before I went in but they've told me to stop as she thinks it was making my breathing worse (thats the nurse that didn't even listen to my chest) The Vicks is blowing my head off now! I've got an olbas inhaler and back to back paracetamol. Feeling like I'm managing the pain better today. I'm going to see GP on Monday if not improved over the weekend, bit worried if not treating the infection it might spread to my chest xx
Exactly, that is what I always worry about too. Hope you feel better soon. Keep doing all the good things.
Sian
Xoxoxox
Thanks Sian! Glad I'm not the only one who worries.
L xx
Lil tinx, I think we all worry.
Golly, attitudes have changed with regards to sinus infections. Last time I had sinusitis I was put straight on a course of antibiotics.
I used to use Karvol capsules if I felt my sinuses were beginning to get troublesome. They were brilliant, but then quite suddenly they became very difficult to find. I understand they are no longer available. I still have a few left in the last box I got (I stocked up when they became scarce), but I suspect they'll all be gone by the end of this winter
I used to use Karvol, but a pharmacist out me into the menthol crystals as cheaper just got to be careful not to put too many crystals in the water.
Covid causing an asthma flare...
SPIRIVA RESPIMAT inhaler
Adrenal Insufficiency and reducing steroid inhaler
upping steroid inhaler 
