Rescue Inhaler

[Vanessa74]

I am on a daily - Flovent two puffs twice per day. I used to only do two puffs once a day - but back in October when my breathing went really bad my Pulm. increased it. I have been on the doubled dose for 4 months - have seen NO IMPROVEMENT.....

Thanks for your input.

[Gabby2007]

Just to give another side to the issue , I have GERD also. I take medication for it, but sometimes I still feel terrible - staying on the diet is difficult! At any rate, I haven't noticed a worsening of my asthma symptoms that matches the worsening of the GERD. Doesn't seem to be a correlation for me.

We had to experiment with my asthma meds - I was on Flovent 2 puffs a day also. Didn't seem to be helping. Finally moved to serevant (long acting bronchodilator) and Asmanex (inhaled steroid). Most of the time I feel really good, don't have to use my rescuer that much.

Have you checked with a GI doc, Vanessa? There are tests they can do to assess how much impact your GERD is having on you, work with you to get it under control.

[Vanessa74]

Hi Gabby,

May I ask - at the time you were on the two puffs of Flovent twice daily - did your rescue inhaler help if you needed it (even though the Flovent wasn't really working).

My Doc. wants me to try a couple different PPI's before sending me to the GI Doc. He believes that my breathing problems are from the GERD...

My Pulm. says he is considering the 'M Challenge' test because my Pulm Function tests come back normal as do my peak flows. Also, perhaps some allergy testing.

They are both puzzled by the Ventolin not really helping...

Thanks for your response!

Nessa

[Titchou]

If you don't actually have asthma, albuterol is not going to help. Sorry, it just won't because the attack is not pulmonary in origin. You have to correct the cause and the cause is evidently your digestive issue.

[Gabby2007]

The rescue inhaler didn't help when I was on the Flovent, so they concluded that I didn't have asthma as a result. Then my breathing problems got worse, I went to a lot of different docs to check on the GERD, that was eliminated as a cause of my cough/chest tightness...I think the next pulmonary doc said that asthma treatment can be a trial and error thing - have to experiment to find the correct meds.

Incidentally, I had the meth challenge test - it came back normal. All of the breathing tests did. Except the docs say my lungs *sound* like asthma, and the inhalers do seem to help...I have extrinsic asthma (non allergic), which is why the meth challenge was normal.