Double dose of Advair made me sick

[rainbow_goddess]

I'm currently taking Advair 250 disc inhaler. My GP suggested I take two puffs in the morning and two puffs at night, instead of one puff in the morning and one at night, because I'm having trouble controlling my asthma on the one puff twice a day. I asked him if he would just prescribe me Advair 500 instead, as I didn't want to pay twice as much

Comments

[miafeliz]

That sounds pretty normal to me. I hate the stuff. Not everyone reacts that way to Advair. I have friends who love the stuff and can't rave about it more. I found that Symbicort works better for me.

Advair exacerbated my panic/anxiety disorder. I had aches and pains, was dizzy and weak. My heart was racing and I had panic attacks.

I find that both Albuterol and Symbicort still make my heart race but it's nothing like Advair.

Ask about something else. Also, has anyone tried the newish one called Dulera? Does that work?

[foundunicorn]

I’m on Dulera, the packing says “two puff twice a day” I got my doctor to proscribe a stronger one (200mcg/5mcg)
I take one puff only, and I do that in the morning, can’t sleep if I would take a puff at night.

[miafeliz]

Interesting. I've seen the commercials for it and wondered about it. I'm pretty ok on my Symbicort but I still have a mental need for albuterol sometimes.

[rainbow_goddess]

I can take only what insurance will cover. Insurance normally covers only Flovent, but I wasn't well controlled on Flovent so my previous doctor got special authority to cover Advair. I used to be good on Advair but the last couple of years my asthma has gotten worse; any exercise at all gives me an attack, as do changes in temperature. My GP won't send me to asthma specialist so I'm pretty much at his mercy for whatever he decides to tell me to do.

[foundunicorn]

Two puffs go’s against the proscribing info.
Hand the doctor the one out of your box.

[rainbow_goddess]

I noticed that all the literature and the TV commercials say not to exceed two puffs a day. My doctor is very annoying. When I asked him to prescribe Advair 500 instead of Advair 250, he said "I'm not comfortable doing that," even though he is apparently "comfortable" with advising me to take a higher dose than recommended by the manufacturer.

[wrin]

This statement makes no sense to me and makes me wonder if he has any idea exactly what he's prescribing, considering the drug in that combination with potentially dangerous side effects (in high doses) is the long-acting bronchodilator, not the steroid.

[foundunicorn]

Take that big sheet out of the box and use a high-lighter on it, so the doctor can read the right part fast.

[thefreshchuff]

You might want to try a new asthma doctor, if he's not taking your feelings/worries into consideration. :\

Also, Advair really messed me up too after I'd been taking it for a couple of years. It just stopped feeling at all effective. I was using my rescue inhaler about four times a week. Once I got put on Flovent every other day, I haven't used my rescue in a year. Maybe it's time to experiment with a different medicine altogether?

[wrin]

That's really interesting, what with it being the same inhaled steroid and all. There's some research to show that taking bronchodilators on a daily basis can actually worsen asthma. It's part of the reason why the long-acting bronchodilators have black box warnings from the FDA and why "just take a lot of Ventolin" hasn't been a viable asthma treatment strategy for roundabouts 25 years.

I personally think it depends on the individual (there's plenty of people running around with 24/7 bronchospasm and a long-acting bronchodilator is far better than a short-acting one) and control shouldn't just focus on drugs -- lifestyle factors play a huge part, most notably trigger avoidance and lifestyle adjustments.

[thefreshchuff]

I believe there's something else in Advair that Flovent doesn't have (my pulminologist's layman explanation, lol), and it was that second medicine that I was reacting badly too. But also, I went from Advair twice a day to Flovent every other day, and I think it was the general weaning-off of medication that made a HUGE difference.

I agree that so much of it is lifestyle too, or at least it is in some people's cases. At my worst, I was on a ton of different medicines for asthma and allergies and stomach bloating and this that and the other -- weaning myself off all those (I'm just on Flovent now, and that's not even every day) has cut down on my breathing and bloating problems a LOT. So who knows how much of my asthma is/was a product of over-medication. :\

[miafeliz]

Do you feel that your asthma meds have caused stomach bloating? I was taking something different for a totally different situation and one of the symptoms was bloating and that was obvious, but prior to that, I already had some bloating.

I hadn't thought of it.

[wrin]

The two puffs of 250/50 probably just loaded you up a bit too much on the bronchodilator stuff. The 500/50 is worth a try

[rainbow_goddess]

I can't get a new doctor. There are quite literally no doctors in my city, with the exception of obstetricians, who are taking new patients. The doctor I have will not refer me to a specialist, and without a referral you can't see a specialist because the government won't pay a specialist without a referral from a GP. So I'm pretty much screwed. It's kind of like being held hostage.

The Advair 250/50 agrees with me fine and controls my asthma better than Flovent ever did, but not at a double dose.

[dontcryforme]

Just an option, but would it be possible to get your doc to write a script for just Flovent? When the breathing's bad you could add just Flovent on top of the Advair for the same effect of the 500/50 Advair.

[wrin]

Advair is Flovent plus a long-acting bronchodilator. That's kind of where I was going with that -- that there's research to say taking bronchodilators daily (long-acting or otherwise) isn't good for asthma control, and can actually make it worse.

The one thing that somewhat slays me with regards to overmedication is physicians who don't listen to their patients. I had a lady in the office today who was taking a high dose of Advair and yet had terrible control. It took probing and lots of questions and eventually it became clear that 1) she wasn't taking her medication religiously (increasing the dose doesn't help if you're not taking the stuff) and 2) she had unaddressed problems with allergy control that were probably exacerbating her asthma. So she isn't taking her Advair because it's expensive, and she's not addressing the allergies. I sold it to her as a treat-the-cause sort of thing, and a "if $20 worth of antihistamines means you can back off on the Advair, you just saved yourself some money" kind of thing. But physicians with

[thefreshchuff]

Then that's definitely what was going on with me. I was on Advair for about 6, 7 years, and it got to the point where my *breathing* was getting worse and worse, whereas all the asthma-related tests they did said my lungs were great and my asthma should be virtually nonexistent. So it was this medicine I was pumping into myself that was really doing the damage. (I almost wonder if the doctor that prescribed me the Advair went overboard, because all my asthma doctors since then have said I had very mild asthma and shouldn't have slapped with such a strong dosage to begin with.)

Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's a two-way street -- if the patient isn't being completely clear and communicative with the doctor, how are they to know what's wrong, but a doctor that breezes in, asks three questions, hears what he's looking for and gives you a prescription isn't exactly doing his utmost to get the full story either!