We went back to our old pediatrician today. We had to switch due to insurance, I didn't care for the new one so we went back and I had to fill her in on my DD's saga with asthma the past few months.

My DD has been on Singulair since March, Serevent since April and Flovent since beginning of May.(I posted below last week about her being on nebs for awhile.)Her doctor agreed that her asthma is out of control. So she switched her to pulmicort(O.5mg/2ml Respules) once/day. She also put her on claritin and flonase until we can get to an allergist.
We do have an appt with the allergist on June 26th so hopefully we will get some answers.

Now, here is my question. Isn't Flovent stronger than Pulmicort? My DD was on Flovent 110, 2 puffs twice/day. Has anyone had success going from Flovent to Pulmicort....it seems like the majority of posts that I have read on other boards they start out with pulmicort and go on to Flovent.

Another question is why take her off the Serevent? From my understanding Flovent and Pulmicort are both corticorsteroids used for inflammation and Serevent is a long acting bronchiodilater so shouldn't she still use the serevent?

I don't know why I didn't ask the pediatrician these questions, I try to prepare myself and then it seems like the visits always turn out differently than I expect so the questions I had planned to ask end up being useless.<sigh>

I appreciate any words of advice.

Thanks,
Anna

Originally posted by 4girls4me:
Now, here is my question. Isn't Flovent stronger than Pulmicort? My DD was on Flovent 110, 2 puffs twice/day. Has anyone had success going from Flovent to Pulmicort....it seems like the majority of posts that I have read on other boards they start out with pulmicort and go on to Flovent.

Another question is why take her off the Serevent? From my understanding Flovent and Pulmicort are both corticorsteroids used for inflammation and Serevent is a long acting bronchiodilater so shouldn't she still use the serevent?

No, Flovent is not stronger than Pulmicort. They're just different. Like Ventolin (or Albuterol) vs. Berotec or Bricanyl. Oxeze vs. Serevent. They do the same thing, they're just different drugs.

To counter what you said about most people switching from Pulmicort to Flovent, I went the other way. I started on Flovent and then switched to Pulmicort becuase the Flovent did bad things to my voice. (I sing.)

Pulmicort is also the only corticosteroid that's available for the neb. So. *shrug*

Why take her off the long-acting bronchodilator? Who knows. Normally they like to stay out of the habit of putting people on too many drugs -- in your DD's case I think maybe they were afraid it was masking the symptoms of her asthma, keeping you from noticing flare-ups because her serevent kept her from tightening up too much. As much as this is the goal of serevent, when you're trying to figure out what causes flare-ups it's not something you want to have around. Also, serevent and oxeze are not really recommended for children under 12. They take a long time to decay in the body, and in a person with smaller body mass they tend to take even longer to decay, thus risking a buildup of the drug in your bloodstream.

From what I understand (this much is hearsay though) it's been debated whether daily bronchodilators are very good for a person at all -- some say they put undue stress on the heart (as they are all stimulants) and others say they tend to make asthma worse, and should be used as sparingly as possible. This last bit seems to be my situation -- though this could also be an illusion, as worsening asthma usually prompts greater rescue drug use.

I'm betting that the serevent is not the safest drug for her to be on, and they're trying to figure out what exactly is making her flare up (but that's only a guess.)

If you've thought of questions since your visit, call the doctor back up to have your questions answered. Answering questions about treatment that he has prescribed is part of his job and something they do on a daily basis. Doctors make as many as 30 phone calls a day to answer patients questions.

Make sure to have the questions written down and your thoughts in order. Call and say something to the effect--"My daughter was just in for an appointment and I have some questions I'd like to ask the doctor about the medications she's been prescribed." Good luck to you.