Hi, i was just diagnosed about a week ago with reactive asthma. I stopped smoking but what brought mine on was long term exposure to bleach in my bathroom.
I'm 31 and never had any asthma before this so it's all new to me.
I had some trouble the 1st 3 days keeping it under control because I didn't know how so I was in ER and urgent care off and on those 3 days.

They have me on levalbuteral .63mg for nebulizer (i weigh 104 pounds but they said i could double up on that dose if I needed to), also had a steriod shot plus they gave me a steriod inhaler to use 2x daily called Qvar 80mcg.
I've been doing the xoponex (spelling?) levalbuterol every 6 to 8 hours and the steriod every 12hrs.

I rinse and gargle my mouth clean after with water a few times but my throat is getting kind of raw/horse feeling. I've been drinking warm tea w/honey to try and help with the dry throat feeling but it's not working.

For a couple of days I felt pretty good, had it under control but last night and today I have been feeling tight in my chest as if i need the levalbuterol sooner than 6 hours. I also have an albuterol inhaler as back up but I haven't used it since I got the levalbuterol/nebulizer.

Albuterol makes me VERY shaky and feel like anxiety which doesn't help my breathing... It also seems to take up to an hour to open my airways which the levelbuterol was working almost right away to open my airways. Now today and last night it has not been helping so quickly.

I can breathe right now but I'm having to work a little hard at it cause of the tightness and raw/dry feeling (i guess?).

NOW, my question is:
Which meds are best to open the airways w/o too much jittery feeling and w/o making your airway opening feel raw/dry?
Also, which steriod inhaler seems to work best for you? I'm on Qvar, have any of you tried it before? Did it do the job or is there something better?

feel so tight in my chest right now, I can't get comfortable and I just had about 94.5mg of xopenex levalbuterol which is 1 - 1/2 of the tubes of med. this was about40 minutes ago so, what gives? Why am I not opening up now?
I'm pretty scared and don't wanna end up in the ER again tonight. I have to get this right cause I have to go on a flight tomorrow.
HELP!!!!
Thanks!!!!

Well, I just went to the urgent care for not being able to get a good breath...
They said I might be getting a yeast infection in my throat. Yippy, as if it couldn't get any worse. So, they gave me 3 fluconazole 150mg tablets to take over the next few days. He said it probably wont help with my breathing but it will help with horseness/dry airway throat feeling. He also gave me bidex which is like mucinex to try to get any mucus out of me. I don't really feel i have too much mucus cause everything is so dried out I feel like a human raisin.. I guess I could be wrong, who knows at this point. He said for me to rinse my mouth with 50% hydrogen peroxide/50% water after using my inhalers to help protect me from oral trush. I did notice that after about 30 minutes of being out of my house I was starting to breathe a little better slowly so maybe it's just something in our house. I have a dog indoors, our house is not that old haso i shouldn't ve mold iI to just camp out in the yard for the ssues, but we for sure have huge dust issues. This sux. Am rest of my life or what?

Wow I wish I knew more about all the meds but yes , rinsing after using steroid inhalers is a must, I rinse and brush but perhaps you are more sensitive.
I have albuterol and have not used it much. Luckily I have not gotten jittery. It did take about an hour for 2 puffs to really work so there probably is some absorption time with any med. I also use advair for preventative, are any of yours supposed to prevent an attack?
Less humid air is better for me and if you have a pet that could be a complication. I went on a cleaning rampage against dust , the house was cleaner but I can't say I saw much difference. But everyone is different.
Do you have one dr managing all these meds?

Yes, I have a Dr who I have seen 3 times for this except for the one at the ER. The Qvar is the inhaled steroid and is supposed to be my prevention.

Levalbuterol in nebulizer is my 4 to 6 hour rescue. Albuterol is my rescue inhaler to take with me when out of the house (can only take a puff if it's close to the time for the levalbuterol to wear off.)

Now, the mucinex I took a load of like he said to last night and today and I coughing up a little mucus. I took one of the fluconazole tablets lastnight too for a trush/yeast infection he thinks I have in my throat and chest and today I don't feel the scratchy/dry/horse feeling in my airway opening.

After I got out of the house and sat in the Dr's office for a while my breathing did get a little better so it for sure has to be something in this house that is triggering my attacks. It seems worse some days than others so, I have no idea what it is.

I went on a cleaning rampage too (had to wear an allergy mask) and got rid of all the dust, dog hair, etc that I could find. The dust just keeps coming back pretty thick every 3 days and so does the dog hair (it's shedding season for him)! So, we for sure have a dust and dog hair issue.

I just want to be able to have more good days with this than bad and I don't understand WHY one day albuterol or xoponex(levalbuterol) DON'T seem to work as my rescue and other days it works fine. It scared me to death. I couldn't catch a good breath all day yesterday from about 7AM to about 6pm! That's WAY too long...
I was so scared, ended up crying (that could be the steriod injection making me moody) but heck! This stuff is just plain old scary so who knows... Right now I can breathe ok but I just got up so we'll see after I start stirring around the house. PLEASE GOD LET IT BE A GOOD DAY!!!!:angel:

t_panic411-

Like you, I developed asthma as an adult (35 y.o. in my case) and it sucks, and I'm wondering whether I am doomed to be always worrying about my breathing for the rest of my life. But, the right combination of meds can make a significant difference. I think your situation can be improved by seeing an asthma specialist to get your meds straightened out and a comprehensive treatment plan based on monitoring your peak flow put in place.

You can get levalbuterol (Xopenex) in a standard inhaler now. I carry one around everwhere that I go. For me, the levalbuterol causes MUCH less shakiness than albuterol. The reason for this is that albuterol is actually a mixture of two compounds: levalbuterol and its enantiomer (dexalbuterol). Roughly speaking, levalbuterol is responsible for the good effects (relaxing smooth muscle in the lung and allowing you to breathe more easily) and dexalbuterol causes the side effects (shakiness, elevated heart rate, etc.).

I think you need to give the Qvar more time to work. It took at least two weeks for the inhaled steroid to really damp down the inflammation in my lungs. The effects of inhaled corticosteroids come on so slowly it is hard to notice day-by-day. However, after a couple of weeks you will feel better. I haven't had any problems with yeast infections, but I rinse thoroughly and brush my teeth after inhaling.

I'm no medical doctor, but I think your meds aren't right. You are nebulizing levalbuterol as a "daily control" med, but essentially using the same med (albuterol) for your "rescue" medication. There is only so much good that you can get out of a short-acting beta-agonist like albuterol.

The more standard combination is a "long acting" beta agonist like salmeterol as the "daily control" med and albuterol or Xopenex as the "rescue". This is in addition to a corticosteroid (like Qvar, Pulmicort, Asmanex) taken for long term control. Many people are on Advair which is a mixture of salmeterol and a steroid in one inhaler. Beta agonists and corticosteroids can work together, so the combination is more effective than either drug alone.

Like I said before, I think you need to see an asthma specialist to get your meds straightened out and put together a comprehensive treatment plan.

The Knight Who Says Ni !
Ni ! Ni ! Ni !

I was on Qvar but it needs a long time to take effect, also rinsing and gargling with water is a must to help prevent thrush. Ya, it irritated my throat like crazy. When I saw the doc yesterday due to difficulty in breathing, he said the Qvar wasn't the right choice for me, prescribed me Advair instead. I found the advair helped but the qvar, after 2 weeks, did nothing.

my sister takes singular 10 mg and hardly ever needs to take albuterol now...remember that the less you use albuterol the better it will work when u need it ..so go see a pulmonologist and get the right meds for u.....life does not have to be so hard with aasthma there are ways to control it ....good luck:wave:

Thanks for all your replies! I thought that qvar/steroids were the prevention med and albuterol/levalbuterol was the rescue meds....
I will for sure make an apt with an asthma specialist just to get this all right.
I have been on the qvar for about 2 weeks now I think. I'm not having emergency situations like I was when I started this post. I am still having to use my qvar 2x daily and albuterol inhaler about once or twice a day but it's not a BIG emergency.
I'll be having allergy testing done after the 10th of July so that will tell me a lot.

The steroids are the preventive and the albuterol the rescue. You just may need to switch steroid sprays...

ok, i've been on this qvar for around 2 weeks now and i do notice a difference but i still have that little tad of asthma feelings coming and going through out the day...... Soooo my question is, how long is it going to be before this steriod inhaler is going to make all this asthma symptoms go away or will it/can it make it all go away? Can/do steriods make all the asthma feelings go away for you all?
Just asking because I had hoped that these symptoms would be 100% gone by now since this is my 1st asthma attack and is supposed to be reactive asthma. I seem to be fine if I'm in the house as long as the AC is no TOO high or is not hot in here. But where it's hot out side right now as soon as i go outside, if it's humid/thick air feeling, I start to feel like my airways get thick and have trouble breathing. Sooo, i get in the car and crank up the AC only to end up feeling like the AC dries out my airways and get a feeling of not being able to breathe well then too. But if I go into a place of business that's nicely AC'd (not too much/little) and there is no carpet, then I'm GREAT, totaly normal breathing, notrouble walking fast, getting around, etc.
Should the steriods be getting rid of these symptoms I'm getting from the AC, humid heat, or random triggers that I don't even know what are?
I have a choice right now.... Cash wise, I have enough to either go to a pulmonologist OR an allergy Dr to be tested for allergies. Which should I go to?
One can test my lungs/function and get my meds straight/right for me.. But the other can tell me if some or all of this is allergies and give me shots which could help... what to do what to do??????????? If you had a choice, which would you go to?

Well, I go to an immunologist in an allergy clinic for both my allergies and my asthma. If I was limited to either a pulmonologist or an allergist, not sure what I'd do. It appears that humidity is triggering your attacks. So I might opt for the pulmonologist and try an OTC antihistamine...benedryl or claritin maybe...just to see what happens....

Hi, sure sorry you're having all these problems. As you know, everyone is different, so it's whatever works best for you. If I had to choose which doctor to see because of money, it would be for your asthma first. Allergies can be helped over the counter pretty much. I take Advair 250/50 and an Albuterol rescue for my asthma. Lots of times asthma conditions seem to worsen if your lungs are irritated from smoke, pollen, etc, and not necessarily be allergic to them. I take Allegra 180 and Nasacort AQ for my allergies, which are just borderline, by the way. Another thing which might make your throat hoarse would be if you have acid reflux (GERD) which I definitely have, and take Nexium 40mg. My breathing is fine now, even with only 40% lung function. I am retired so I don't have to exert myself as much. I was a firefighter and also smoked which probably didn't help. Be sure and drink plenty of water everyday and take vitamins and minerals for your health. I wish you well, and be sure to see the pulmonologist. God bless you!:angel:

What kind of dr are you seeing now? Try to keep a diary for a few days to see if you can identify trriggers yourself. Have you been officially diagnosed with asthma, if not I'd say a pulmonologist. If you have and you seem far more sensitive than I , I'd probably go to the allergist to figure out the triggers. 4 days after given my preventative inhaler, my symptoms stopped, I don't think is as severe. But when I got sick, I needed a rescue inhaler and cough medicine. sorry, that probably wasn't much help but it does sound like you need to get it under control.

t_panic-

Getting back to your original question of whether inhaled corticosteroids will make your asthma symptoms completely go away, I am sorry to say that in my case they do not. However, they do help me breathe far more easily than without them. Considering my (over)reaction to bronchodilators like albuterol, the steroids and Singulair keep me breathing without causing me to spaz out.

As for which doc, I would lean toward going to the allergist/immunologist. Unless you know you are being exposed to irritating chemicals or dusts on a chronic basis, it is very likely that one of the underlying causes for your asthma is an allergic reaction to dust mites, pet dander (cats, dogs) or pollen. The things which you have identified as triggers (heat, humidity) probably wouldn't be a problem without your lungs being unhappy about one of the aeroallergens. The allergist can do testing that will identify your allergic triggers, and you can work on avoiding them and/or start immunotherapy ("allergy shots").

My asthma problem flared up about one year ago, and I thought there would be some "quick fix" for it and then I could go back to normal life. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out that way. I hope you can find something that fixes your asthma pronto, but you should be prepared to deal with this condition for the long haul.

The Knight Who Says Ni !

Yea, I was diagnosed by 2 different Dr's (Gp's) that I have reactive asthma.
But they have not done any tests to know for sure... They said they can tell based on my breathing, sounds, voice, etc., when I went into their office and in ER. I've read the symptoms too and it even sounds right to me based on symptoms alone. I have decided to go with the pulmonologist 1st and then see an allergy Dr later. Yea, it's a money situation but I can see them both thank GOD... just not in the same day or week like I would like to do and get it over with.
I have an apt with the pulmonologist on June 10th and I HOPe he runs every test that exists so I know for sure what's going on in my lungs. Kind of scares me a little cause I just recently had my 10th pack a day year of smoking! I don't smoke now (because I can't :rolleyes:). For those of you who don't know... smoking 1 pack a day for 10 years in a row does irreversible damage to your lungs. Everyone is different so that amount/severity of damage will be different for each person. In my case, I SHOULD have known something bad was coming because I would get lung infections almost every year for the last 4 years of my smoking. Plus my lung secretions started to feel thick all the time and I noticed weezing (asthma like) symptoms if I exercised. Those feelings would go away if i drank cold water and relaxed/caught my breath for a few minutes so I thought it was just tar or mucus plugs stuck in my lungs from smoking.. I soooooo shoulda known!