Busy Day...and Asthma Update
I am spending sitting in front of a computer and meeting (in person) with people who may come to this college next year....all day. (9:30-4:00) I didn't realize when I signed up that it would be Andrew's first day home. Oh well, perhaps it is for the best. He can sleep and relax without my hovering.
It is always difficult to work on a Saturday.
I'm finding that I have to remind myself that I thought Symbicort was making me no better or perhaps even worse, but coming off of it I really doing less-than-great. I just took myself off it and went back to my old meds. I'm wondering now if I should have talked to my doctor about coming off it slowly in order to give the other med a chance to build up.
I forgot how long it takes for a daily treatment (as opposed to a rescue inhaler) to build up to make a difference, and I didn't realize that I was going to be going back to the beginning of the process.
BTW, normally I don't use the brand names of products. I've changed my mind in case any one else is searching for patient experiences of Symbicort. I don't doubt that it is a a good medicine for a bunch of people, but the whole experience did not go well for me.
My daughter was just switched and I was told that is common. They didn't slow one down to start the other.
ReplyDeleteGoing from one inhaled steroid to another you should have pretty much continuous coverage (i.e. there really should be no wait for the other to build up.) One thing to keep in mind is that your symptoms were poorly controlled on the first medicine before you switched to Symbicort in the first place, and now that you're back to your old medicine, they are poorly controlled again. Maybe you need a higher-potency inhaled steroid or a different delivery mechanism. Are you using a spacer with your inhalers? Even for adults, the dose delivery is much more effective with a spacer. There also are some steroid inhalers that are powder inhalers vs. the spray kind, and maybe one of those would work better for you. There are also different potencies of active ingredient.
ReplyDeleteWhat the symbicort has that is extra is the long-acting beta agonist; that is what makes it help more, but also was the component that was making you jittery.
Deb
(who actually got a google sign-in last time you had the anonymous poster discussion, but now can't figure out how to get myself signed in as google without losing the comment I just already wrote.)
I do have a spacer. the meds irritated my voice/throat too much before.
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