Advair?

[byrdwoman]

I have been switched from flovent to advair 500/50 by my allergist/asthma dr. a few months ago. Odd enough i had 2 major colds since then. Got one in November and the other cold i got in the middle of Feb. If you read any of my past post you already know i've been dealing with a stubborn cold this time. Its been over 5 weeks since i got this last one.The sickness itself is gone, im just struggling to get the ton of junk out of my lungs. After reading post on people that take advair. It seems that most of the people are on a lower level advair dose then me. I haven't read many people on 500/50 dose.
Its either a fluk with the advair or its causing my heart to race and and making more difficult to breathe. My husband pointed it out the other day that a few hours after i take the advair my breathing gets worse. So i continued to take it for 3 more days and sure enough a few hours to several hours later i would have the episode of shortness of breathe and tightness of breathe. I still get the episodes without the advair. I quit taking it about 5 days ago. Without the advair i just can manage the shortness of breathe alittle better.
I am set up to see a pulmonary doc this week. They mentioned maybe scoping my lungs? I suppose thats what the doctor meant. Then maybe scraping or getting the stubborn mucus out of my lungs. I hope something they do will give me some relieve. Im exhausted and freaked out that this is going to be with me the rest of my life. I get short of breathe mainly when im sitting either in the car or a recliner we just go.
If anyone has been through something like this please let me know what to expect, and if you had any adverse side effects to advair? If you have any knowledge about what it means when your mucus is thick and what it means to still have the yellowish,green and specks of brown in the mucus means. I would like to hear what you have to say. I know this is gross but with asthma like most of you know its life.
Thanks,
jane

[monacks]

Actually, I am on the 500/50 dose too. I have had several sicknesses since last fall, and I did have the three month cold that I told you about in a prior post. I think I've been on the Advair for about a year or so. So I don't know if it makes things worse. But I don't experience any of the symptoms you have. I don't know if you should just stop taking your meds like that. What else are you taking? Now, I am on atrovent inhaler and Singulair as well. The Singulair is supposed to lessen secretions or something like that. Maybe you should check into that.

But you really need to stick with your meds and call the dr before you go off something. Maybe when you go next week, the dr can put you on something else. But you definately need to see a pulminologist. The people that work in those offices will talk with you on the phone, phone in prescriptions, etc. It seems like they are more available and take the condition more seriously than the regular dr, at least in my case.

Good luck with the procedure. Doesn't sound fun. Hope you get well soon.

[jp3892]

I notice both of u are on the highest prescribed steroid dose and both of u are gettin infection after infection. Well steroids DO lower the immune system. Don't just reduce them though. Might just be a thing with Advair. Ask your Dr. to prescribe Pulmicort or something.

[wrin]

SYSTEMIC steroids suppress your immune system.

The serevent component in Advair would yes, make your heart race to a certain degree.

If there's stuff down there that you're having a tough time coughing up, ask your doc if he has any recommendations for getting it out of there because if it stays it's just going to make you a walking petri dish.

[wonderwoman4589]

wow, i never put it together till reading your experience. I'm on the same dose of advair and I've been sick SOO much this winter. And the worst is that the "cold" and infections that I've had have been so hard to kick. I've been taking several vitamins and Olive Leaf Extract lately and I've been feeling better with more energy. I suppose that's because my immune system is getting support. Nonetheless I'm going to talk to my doc about this...especially when I hear about other side effects that I didn't know about before.