Are you asthmatic? Can I have a bit of advice please??

[twiglett]

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yup too much ventolin can make u light headed and rushy. how much becotide arew u taking? idealy you should only use ventolin every 4 hours or less if needed, but during dd1 bad bouts of asthma she is allowed to up her dose to 2puffs every 2hours, or if having an attack 4 puffs initally, if doesnt stop in 10mins then some more, if that doesnt work after a short period of time then its off to a+e.

Twiglett - As with most medicines the suppliers recommend you on't take it every 4hrs. I have seen myself taking my inhaler much more often than that, but it's usually an indicator that you need to up my steroid intake. However, if you have only just started taking the steroids they do take a few days to work. So don't listen your sis and take your inhaler whenever you need it! What would she rather.... you had an attack???

The jittery feeling will be the salbutamol, but you will get used to the drug and it won't happen anymore after a couple of days. So sorry you've been diagnosed with this. I've had it since I was 14, but it's only recently I've started needing to be on a becotide inhaler all year round. I only used to take in peak Hay Fever season. All winter I could go days without taking my Salbutamol, but whenever June arrived I would be puffing on it every couple of hours....then it was straight to the docs, nebuliser and steroids.

Hope you start to feel better soon. The steroids really make a huge difference and if you get the right dosage and take it daily you might find you don't need the salbutamol at all!

My 4 yr old dd is asthmatic and has the blue and brown inhalers. She always has two puffs of the brown one, morning and night. We only use the blue one when needed but have been told that we can give her up to 10 puffs if needed, although we then should get her seen at hospital if she is needing to take that much.
We have also been told that we can give her 8 puffs of her brown inhaler when her asthma is bad (that is double the amount advised on leaflet).
Like M2T said, once the steroids start to work you should find that you don't really need to use your reliever. HTH

How much of you Becotide inhaler (preventor) have you been told to take? Once it becomes effective your need for salbutamol will reduce. You should take it 4 hourly regularly at the moment and any time inbetween as you need it. You can overdo it. If you are needing it 2 hourly, you may need to be nebulised again. When are you seeing the doc again?

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twiglett, I've been asthmatic since I was about 3 years old and always had to have inhalers, both ventolin and becotide and often had attacks and nebulisers and steroid injections. I found it got a lot worse when I was pregnant, I went through a period of 2 weeks when every night I was having to call emergency services for a nebuliser! And I did have some steroid tablets when pregnant and was told they didn't cross the placenta.

Until the becotide starts working which can be a few days (unlike ventolin it builds up rather than working immediately) you should take the ventolin whenever you need it. If you have a nebuliser it's equivalent to over 40 puffs of ventolin so it obviously can't do you any harm. But it will make you feel weak and spaced out. So will a lot of ventolin use. But basically the effects of the ventolin will be much less than the effects of breathing so hard that you're not getting enough oxygen into your blood.

Hope you feel better soon x

Twiglett - I have often queried the safety in taking these steroids whilst pregnant, but the GP assured me that it's okay and faaaaaar less of a risk than if I had an attack. Apparently it's an incredibly low dose.

What micorgrams is the inhaler? Is it 100, 200 or 250? I take 2puffs twice daily of the 200ug in summer, but only 2 puffs twice a day of the 100ug one the rest of the year (dark brown with a beige lid).

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Don't worry if you still feel breathless tomorrow. They do take a couple of days to kick in. But when they do you'll really feel the difference.

hugs twiglett ... so sorry to hear you're really suffering with this. I just want to echo everyone and say that really, if you need it, then it's better for baby that you have it. In many ways, asthma when you are pregnant is far far worse on you than the baby, because the baby takes the lion's share of the oxygen!

Thinking of you.

Hope you feel a bit better soon, Twiglett.

Yes, the salbutamol does make you feel jittery. I always used to get the "Ventolin shakes". When I had nebulisers I literally couldn't stand up because my legs were so weak and shakey - but it still felt better than not being able to breathe properly.

Just to echo what everyone else has said, you can use the salbutamol as much as you need to. A puff of the inhaler is tiny compared to a nebuliser.

The prednisalone you get will probably be just a short course (about 5 days) to get you back on your feet.

Twiglett, the reason that they tell you not to take too much ventolin is that if you really are having a bad attack and you take, say 40 puffs of ventolin, when they get you to hospital there is little more they can do as you have already had the equiv of a nebuliser's worth of ventolin. Plus while you are huffing on the ventolin it is sort of panicky, whereas once they have you on the nebuliser you are then breathing deeply and regularly and starting to calm down, which is half the battle. Does that make sense.

Nebulisers do make you very shaky and jittery.

Re steriod tablets, I was on them for my whole pregnancy. They really do not harm the baby, they had no qualms at all about putting me on them as my Crohn's disease had flared up and they said it was far better for the foetus/baby to have a healthy mother on steroids than an ill one not.

HTH - and hope you feel better soon. Asthma can be very scary, you just have to try and keep calm

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Good luck, twiglett, feel better soon x

Twiglett - I just read on a medical website that 1 in every 100 women develop Asthma in pregnancy!
AND that research shows that for those whose Asthma worsens during pregnancy the majority are carrying girls..... something to do with hormone levels.

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Mine actually improved when I was pregnant with my ds's - probably a bit of a drastic cure for asthma though!

Hope you're feeling okay, Twiglett. xx

Oh gawd... definitely going to have to stop at this second ds then... don't think I could cope if I ever got pregnant with a dd - I'm such a pregnancy wuss at the moment!!

I was diagnosed with asthma last year after 3 months worth of bronchitis.

Was given a Brown inhaler (to be used initially as 2 puffs x 2 a day) and a Blue inhaler to be used as needed. Initially Blue one was being used up to 4 times a day (was told to make sure I used it when I needed it).

Then gradually got down to 1 puff x 2 a day of Brown one and I was going weeks without using the Blue one at all!

However, that all changed a fortnight ago - went to a wedding on 28 Feb. - VERY smoky environment - started needing my Blue one whilst there. Then on top of that, got a cold

That really knocked me for six - few days later I was on a nebuliser at the Docs. Peak flow was absolutely c*. Still not got it until control - am currently on 4 puffs x 2 a day of Brown one and Blue one as necessary (currently using it every couple of hours - asthma nurse has told me I MUST use immediately I feel I need to).

Have appointment to see Asthma nurse on Monday -probably needing oral steroids. I haven't slept properly since the night of wedding as I'm needing to use inhaler - coughing/wheezing etc etc.

Supposed to be going out on Sunday night with the girls from work (pub quiz night) but I can't go As I'm struggling still - I can't risk going into a smoky pub as it will set me back again.

Asthma nurse tells me to avoid my "triggers" - which are colds and cigarette smoke - bloody impossible though - 82% of asthmatics have attacks triggered by cigarette smoke - yet they still won't bloody ban it in public places - so I have to stay in

Sorry for rambling - feeling very low with it all at the moment

For more information, have a look at www.asthma.org.uk

Hope you're feeling better soon!

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twiglett, why not take a ventolin just in case? Is this your first encounter with asthma? If you were a hardened asthmatic you really wouldn't think twice about puffing away on the ventolin.

M2T, that's really interesting, my asthma got much worse when pregnant and I had loads of morning sickness too and it was a girl!

twiglett - I was told to sue my inhaler as much as I needed (standard pale blue one) as having a full blown attack was more risky for my baby than any possible side affects of the salbutamol crossing the placenta. I used it a fair bit in th elast two months and baby was fine. I know that jittery feeling all too well - I always take that as my body saying lay off the inhaler for a while and wait for it to calm down before using any more for a few hours. (Not scientific just works for me).

whoops - meant "use" my inhaler not sue it!!

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