I am 33 and have lived in DC my whole life I was sick a few times this winter and had a lasting cough afte each illness. They gave me antibiotics and Asmanex after 3 weeks of coughing in January. It went away and came back after a couple of weeks - bad, bad night coughing - I thought I was sick and when I went back they said it was asthma. They gave me albuterol, advair and allegra. It was all working and all symptoms went away, I slowed up on the meds and then it came back in full force. Today I went to a new doc (#4) who says its bad - I am allergic to everything and gave me singulair, asmanex, clarinex D and foradil. we are off to Florida tomorrow night and if I feel better I may not come home! How can one out of the blue develop serious allergies and asthma? Any insights on these meds? I am normally the type who won't take advil so this is all a bit much for me. And the steroid thing really scares me - I swear the advair made me gain weight even though the docs say no. And the side effects look awful.

Please help!

Thanks
Victoria

Adult asthma is brought on by a respiratory infection. Mine came on after a bout of walking pneumonia. And allergies can come on at any time...get better, get worse. No real reason for it either!

As for the meds, the steroid in the Advair/Flovent/etc dissipates into your lungs and it NOT absorbed into your body like oral and injectable steroids. There are no long term bad effects from using the inhaled steroids. And it doesn't make you gain weight either.

Don't mean to sound fatalistic but you will never get off the asthma meds until they find a cure. Since it was adult onset, you won't out grow it. As for the allergy meds, that could come and go depending on what you are allergic to. Since you are having all these difficulties, I strongly recommend immunotherapy for the allergies (shots, that is). After finishing them up, you may be able to get off allergy meds altogether.

Also, be sure to use your albuterol before any cardio exercise - running, tennis, mowing the grass, vigorous walking, etc. Two puffs, 20 minutes before.

Good luck!

Hi Victoria, don't worry, things will get better for you, but it may take a while for you to get the asthma under control. I have adult onset asthma as well, brought on by kind of uncontrolled allergies. I thought the coughing was probably from pnd, but was eventually diagnosed with asthma. I was taking advair, singulair, maxair, clarinex & nasacort & felt seriously overmedicated. Eventually I started allergy shots & after time was able to stop or reduce some meds. This is a really bad allergy year where I live, so I have had to add some stuff back in, but I hope to reduce again later on. One important things is not to stop the meds just because you're feeling better. Most of the meds are meant to stop you from having asthma attacks, so you have to take them every day as prescribed. Once things have been under control for awhile (3-6 months or so) you may be able to work with your drs to gradually reduce the dose. You may even be lucky enough to go off most of the meds, it hasn't worked for me, but both of my sisters have been able to do it.

It could be laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and not asthma at all. if that's the case, the asthma meds won't help and you need PPIs instead. See the acid reflux message board. Chronic cough is a dead give away.

I hope you're going to start feeling better soon. You will. I was as depressed as you when I started with asthma over 40 years of age. However, when I look back I'd had allergies all my life and every winter I had awful bronchitis. If you look back, you may see a pattern too.

As for the meds give them time to work. I was pig headed about it and it took a long time to get it under control. You didn't say how old you are, but with time you will learn to accept it and try to deal with it. It's hard in the beginning.

It was hard for me to get used to the medications also. I am almost 50 and was diagnosed with asthma at 45 years of age. I have always been so healthy and never been on prescriptions and all at once I have Advair, Nasacort, Singular, Albuteral and Claritan. I was so overwhelmed, I actually thought the Advair was making me feel worse. However, after a couple of weeks, my breathing got better. Looking back, I developed a bad case of bronchitis that lingered for several weeks, and after that I would get chest colds very easily. Every year, like in November and February, I would get sick and be sick until spring. I should have gotten help with my allergies right away, but didn't and I think that's why I developed asthma. I have reduced my meds some, but not altogether. Just work with your doctor and you'll find that the sooner you get your asthma under control, the better.
Cindy