I am taking beclametasone (preventer), Salbutamol (reliever) and montekulast singulair (add on) for my asthma. I have started to wake up at night coughing and having to use my reliever at least once a day. I don’t have a chest infection so I’m not sure whether to go to the doctors or not? Can he do anything else to help me?
Mike_T says:
I know exactly how you feel, I was in a very similar situation. I remember that I was so nervous at that time and I took it out on everyone around me. I didnt know what could I do until, thanks god, I found Smoke Deter. Now I can look back and laugh on myself and in the same time I remember how helpless I was. I hope that I'll never be in the same situation again
Yes, this is an indication that your Asthma is not under proper control. How long have you been waking at night? Record your peak flow twice daily and take the chart to see your Doctor or Asthma Nurse. Your medication needs reviewing.
You really need to be taking a long acting bronchial dilator in conjunction with the Beclometasone (steroid) for better management. Your Doctor may recommend Symbicort turbo-haler, which is a combined long acting bronchial dilator and a steroid. This is more current management.
Are you actually responding to Singulair? up to 20% of people do not respond to it.
You should talk to you doctor. If you are using all those medications without aide maybe they are not right for you. There are different bronchodilators that may help.
Hello. You may have been through this before. Just for the fun of it…if you haven’t already…try this if you would…
Wake up, have 2 salbutamols, wait a min…then have 4 beclametasones. Have a puff of Salbutamol when ‘really’ needed throughout the day…and have 2 Salbutamols before bed…then another 4 Beclametasones!! After 4-5 days your breathing will become much better. Please if you can ignore the montekulast. Only a guideline….but it works brilliantly for me (not exactly what the doctor would order though). Excellent for me…..and hopefully the same for you
Have a word with your doctor I use 3 inhalers Ventolin, Qvar and Serevent don’t have many days that I don’t use reliever in fact sometimes I use it 20 or 30 times, try and identify what you are allergic to and try and avoid them if possible the reason I have problems is cos I am allergic to a lot of things, you could be the same
Yes, he can definitely do more to help. If your asthma is uncontrolled you should definitely look for a change in your drug regime.
There are a number of things he can do:
1) He can add salmeterol, which works the same way as salbutamol but lasts much longer, so it is used as a preventer, taken with your beclometasone
2) He can increase the dose of your beclometasone for more effective control
3) He can add another drug such as ipratropium or theophylline. These work in different ways and depending on your situation might work for you
These are all steps he can take next, and even if it is uncontrolled after these, there is still more that can be done, including oral (tablet) beclometasone and (if it gets really bad) nebuliser!!
He will most likely increase the beclo dose or add salmeterol
Hope this helps!
Rhianna is of course correct you sound generally under treated as to be frank are about 1/3 of all asthmatics.
Can I start by assuming you are on MDI inhalers, bad news only about 60% of adults can according to the literature use these effectively without spacer devices. In my experience it might even be less than 50%. This is despite being checked and shown by asthma nurses, many of whom couldn’t use MDI inhalers themselves.
The second thing I pick up on as important is your reference to ‘chest infection’. Asthmatics don’t of course get any more chest infections than non asthmatics, at least not until very late in their disease. If asthmatics are untreated or poorly treated for many years their disease migrates from asthma, which was sometimes called ‘reversible airways disease’ to COPD, due to progressive lung damage. This is not reversible and at this stage they are, as effectively partial chronic bronchitics, thus liable to infection.
What asthmatics get is exacerbations of their asthma secondary usually to colds. This presents as cough, wheeze and spit often yellow or green. Despite having a clear cut diagnosis of asthma they are VERY frequently managed (mismanaged) by the use of inappropriate antibiotics which have no effct at all, rather than supplementary asthma medication.
Beclomethasone is now the oldest and least potent of the asthma steroids still in use. Overall I suspect you would first of all benefit from a change of device, to a dry powder inhaler, and a change of drug, my personal choice is Pulmicort, (budesonide) via a Turbohaler. If this does not abolish your symptoms when given in low dose, the guidelines now suggest the addition of a long acting B2 drug.This is similar to salbutamol but lasts, in the case of formeterol up to 16 hours.It is usually given as a combined budesonide/formeterol inhaler, the Symbicort Turbo. This combination sensibly only being available in an easy to use dry powder unit.