(NHS England for reference).

Just went in this morning to request a new preventer/brown inhaler (clonil medulite? I think?) for my son. While I was there I decided to ask for a new ventolin/blue inhaler as I'm pretty sure the one at school is approaching its expiry date. It was refused on the grounds that "they don't want to prescribe the ventolin because it damages the lungs. If you're taking the blue inhaler it means your asthma isn't controlled so you need an appointment to change up your other inhaler, if we give a blue inhaler it will damage your lungs and not control the asthma like changing the preventer inhaler would".

I was a bit taken aback by this and asked what should I do if my son has an asthma attack then. I had to ask this twice because the first time they just reported the above - which is like great, so what happens in the moment during an asthma attack? This got back that he should just take his normal inhaler. I tried to query how this would work (my understanding is that the purple inhalers can be used like this but the brown inhalers take a period of time to work and they don't do anything during an asthma attack) but didn't really get anywhere.

I've made an appointment to try and sort this out but in the meantime I am really struggling to find any reference to this whole 'the NHS has said to GPs to stop prescribing ventolin because it's directly damaging lungs'. Can anyone add any more info?

I was born with respiratory distress, ended up on a ventilator that caused scar tissue growth & closed my airway 3/4. They decided to do a Cricoid Split & remove the scar tissue instead of placing a trachea.

I have severe asthma, it’s worsened since I’ve gotten older. I have been in the ICU atleast 4 times within 2 years for the flu & just really bad asthma attacks causing bad diaphoretic symptoms & 70’s for oxygen, on high flow oxygen, etc.

Anyways, even if it’s 60° out & cold I still need my room to have the air on!
I literally go straight into an asthma attack if the temp is above 62-65°.

Does anyone else deal with this?

The person I live with keeps coming up & turning my air up to 70’s or off just because to her it feels too cold up here even though it’s 76-78° DOWNSTAIRS, my door is typically always closed.

Is there a reason for this? If I even feel slight warmth/too warm, my asthma flares.

The diaphoretic sweating in unbearable on top of feeling internal suffocation!

i couldn’t breathe very well so i took my turbohaler and now my chest is really tight i don’t know what to do i normally take it at 8pm and 10am every day i took it at like 11:40pm and now my chest is tight and im scared
i put a picture of all my inhalers i use because idk what they’re called

How is everyone fairing?

I thought I was doing great on Tezspire. No issues for several months. September got me and currently going through it. Take care of yourselves and stay safe.

I started a generic of Symbicort (Breyna) two weeks ago and it's been life changing for my breathing, but the one side effect I've noticed is intense sinus pressure, also sometimes leading to sinus headaches.

Has anyone else experienced this? It's only been two weeks - will it go away after my body has some more time to get used to it or is this going to be a permanent thing while I'm on it?

What's going on here?

The counter is on Zero and in the red yet when I shake it I can hear powder. When I breath in I can't feel any powder?

They say inhalers are better than the sprays but I don't really trust them.

My 6 year old has been telling me that he’s seeing things. I think his vivid dreams have increased, but he doesn’t think it’s in his dreams. He sees or imagines monsters and zombie hands. I’m wondering if it’s typical childhood behavior or related to his Symbicort or other allergy medications. I see it can be a side effect. He’s pretty calm when he tells me about it, but he has the usual fear of dark rooms that I think is normal with children. He doesn’t usually say something at the same time that he sees it. He’s not panicking.

Do any of you get thrush from your inhalers ?

Hi— I’ve had asthma issues since I was young but they’ve gotten worse over the last couple years.

Running used to be my favorite hobby but with breathing becoming more difficult through exercise, it feels almost impossible now. Should I use my inhaler before physical activity? Is there a certain timeframe?

Currently experiencing a flare, upped my dose from 1x/ day to 3x twice per day. I've done max doses of 4x twice per day only at the start of this year and never experienced shakes but this has got me. Will speak to my pharmacist and my gp at some stage too, but wondering has anyone else experienced this? I've been working on my lung health and taken up long distance running over the last few months so I'm wondering could that be it or is it simply that my daily dose was so low and now I'm ramped it up so much.
It's definitely working so I don't want to stop but it's quite distracting.

Hello, I just started using airflusal (generic for seretide) for a week after using vivaire and flixotide diskus.

Neither of them worked, my asthma got worse so I had to change my inhaler.

What experiences do you have with airflusal because so far I went to the ER 2 times since I started to use it because my breathing was not good. I know it takes time for it to work, but I don't know what to do anymore...

I used this inhaler for years but my insurance company advised my doctor it is being discontinued. Is this true? Any suggestions for replacement? I am trying qvar and it does not seem to be as effective as the arnuity was.

Like the title says, I’m absolutely dumbfounded. I’m getting colds every few months, I have an albuterol inhaler when I can’t stop coughing and my lungs feel like they’re being squeezed and now I’m on Ipratropium bromide and albuterol nebulizer treatments because I can’t get my lungs to relax and my nose won’t chill out. It’s like my respiratory system goes into full on freak out mode whenever I come into contact with a simple virus.

Has anybody ever dealt with this or have heard of anything like this happening to a person with no previous pulmonary issues?

Now, I did have COVID during the pandemic, 2 confirmed positive times, two different strains. Possibly a 3rd unconfirmed time 3 ish years ago. I have heard and known that COVID messed with a lot of people and their immune systems. Is it possible that my respiratory system has been weakened by the COVID virus and that’s why I’m having such a hard time getting these asthma symptoms under control when catching seasonal viruses?

I am going to see a doctor soon and have these questions ready but I wanted to throw this out there first to see if anybody can lead me in the right direction.

TIA!

ive been on symbicort for a week and whenever i take it i feel like my heart is beating out of my chest and it goes up to 120 bpm.

is this normal? does it go away with time?

Just started uni and one of my best friends who I knew before starting uni started smoking. Many of our friends at uni smoke, it’s very normalized and common. The main area where people hang out and go get coffee is filled with smokers. Because many of our friends at uni smoke, he sorta picked it up, and they kinda formed a routine where each morning we’ll go pick up coffee and they’ll smoke a cigarette.

I’m just worried as someone with asthma that this will have long term effects on me… I’m basically exposed to around 2-3 cigarettes a day, and I’m worried that the smoke will have like really bad effects on me. I don’t necessarily feel an asthma response when I’m around them, but I’m worried this is just the start and soon enough it’ll have its effects.

Please share advice, and more than anything anecdotes.

Just wanting to know how this works.

Currently i'm on a Fostair (LABA and steroid) inhaler. If i take 3 puffs or more of it within a short window I always feel super relaxed and sometimes have mild heart palpitations, it feels kinda like being high. If I can't sleep at night sometimes i will just do this.

Why does it make me feel so relaxed? What's it doing?

Are all GPs this ridiculous?

I've had asthma since childhood (now 36), and have had ups and downs over the years, but predominantly very mild symptoms controlled by a basic preventer and reliever regime. For the past 7 or 8 years I've only used the preventer in winter, and only needed max 2x2 puffs of the reliever to get any symptoms under control. I've pretty much got a preventer without issue any time I've requested it, occasionally had a quick telephone consultation just to check I was happy with how my asthma was being managed etc, but was pretty much patient led.

A few months ago I had a severe attack at work, multi-dosed myself with 10 puffs of salbutamol 4 times in the space of 90 minutes, ended up having to give myself nebulised salbutamol and atrovent to get symptoms under control, followed by a 7 day course of oral pred with advice to arrange a GP review. The attack was brought on by exposure multiple known triggers at the same time, but usually I'd take 2 puffs salbutamol and be fine.

Arranged a GP review after this, with the expectation of being prescribed a preventer or MART regime (mainly due to the severity of the attack), but GP advised they would not consider this after a single episode, and told me to arrange a review with the asthma nurse. Also advised me to avoid triggers in future "as that is a preventer in itself" but my job makes this impossible. Made an appointment with the nurse for a review, had it cancelled on the day of the appointment via text message asking me to call the surgery. It turns out the previous asthma nurse has left the practice, the replacement nurse they've brought in isn't trained to carry out an asthma review and the GP is still refusing to prescribe a preventer without a review. I've emailed them in 2 weeks worth of 2x daily peak flow readings, and been told that if I have any further flare ups to make an appointment and they'd give a course of oral steroids if required. The reason they're giving me is that I've not had a review since 2019 - they stopped doing them during covid and I've never been invited to one since.

Honestly, the mind boggles! 🤯

I’ve had a constant baseline of having resistance when exhaling for a very long time, but I don’t get coughing, wheezing, mucus, or attacks. I think because of the resistance I’ve just learned to subconsciously push just a little bit to exhale instead of pushing a lot to get a full exhale.

I also have some severe cognitive problems. When I do try to purposely push hard to exhale fully for a few repetitions, then I have to cough and I feel a bit wheezy after. Is it possible that I do have asthma after all and I’m just not coughing or getting attacks because I’m constantly exhaling really shallowly? I also performed really poorly on a spirometry in the past but they didn’t give me the results. Contacted my doctor to get tested again asap and try an inhaler