(no subject)
Dec. 19th, 2008 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rck::snarls at the world::
Okay, pieces of today so far haven't been awful. Most of the day in fact. The weather's awful, and school's closed, but my doctor called me to take care of my concerns over the phone so that I wouldn't have to try to get downtown. It's one of those things that has made me stay with her for so long even with the other issues I have with her.
I'm even feeling a little better. My doctor strongly suspects, given the timing, that I had the bug that Scott did. She says that antibiotic side effect usually take a couple of days to get started. Given that my issues started no more than twelve hours after my first dose, she thinks it was the bug. I didn't get as sick with it as either Scott or Cordelia. I'm not sure if that's because my immune system was already up in arms fighting the strep or if the bug wasn't as viral as Scott was told when he went to the doctor.
The thing making me snarl is that my doctor called back to say that the pharmacy has informed her that they can't fill my rescue inhaler prescription because nobody's making that medication any more. I use alupent. I've tried albuterol several times in the last twenty years, and it's never been pretty. The side effects aren't as bad as ceasing to breathe, but they are worse than spending an hour or two coughing after being out in the cold or having to walk out of restaurants at the first whiff of smoke or incense.
I'm very frightened of what happens the next time I get asthmatic bronchitis or anything else that sets off a prolonged problem. It's only happened three or four times in my life, but those occasions are all in the last ten years, three of them in the last five. When that happens, I end up using my rescue inhaler fairly constantly for weeks. During those bouts, I use inhaled steroids, too. I need both.
This isn't going to mean big changes in my everyday life. I use my rescue inhaler maybe once a month under normal circumstances. It's just going to mean that there are chances I can't take. For example, my brother-in-law and his family want to try to fly us out to Seattle to visit. They've been telling me that they've kept their cats out of the downstairs of the house and that that area should be 'cat-free' and safe for me to stay in. With a safe rescue inhaler I might consider trying it. (I'm still dubious that space that shares the same heating/cooling ducts and general air circulation is going to be free of an air-born allergen, and I'm allergic enough for it to be a big risk with a good inhaler, even if it's just the risk of having to pay for a hotel room for the whole of the stay.)
Admittedly, I've only tried albuterol a few times. I used it for two days in the 80s. I was given it for a reaction to an allergy shot in the 90s (without being told what it was). I was given it in the ER for asthmatic bronchitis about three years ago. The first two reactions were clearly bad due primarily to the medication. The third...I was sufficiently sick at the time that it's hard to tell what was the medication and what was the illness. It helped me breathe a little better, I think, but the side effects left me feeling quite as bad as I had when I'd come in. They held me overnight in hopes that they could get me to sleep, but they kept putting more albuterol into me (I'd specifically told them not to, too. I only found out after the fact that, after the first treatment which was something else, they went back to albuterol).
Does anybody else out there have problems using albuterol? Do you have advice for alternatives? For decreasing the side effects? (I get a racing heart that feels like it's trying to escape my chest. I shake to the point that talking is hard, 'tremors' in my back and chest basically. My anxiety goes up which is hard to do when the normal level is somewhere in the stratosphere.)
::sighs:: My doctor's referring me to a pulmonologist in hopes that there's a solution. As long as I take Singulair every day, my asthma is mild 99% of the time. I've got time to look for options.
Okay, pieces of today so far haven't been awful. Most of the day in fact. The weather's awful, and school's closed, but my doctor called me to take care of my concerns over the phone so that I wouldn't have to try to get downtown. It's one of those things that has made me stay with her for so long even with the other issues I have with her.
I'm even feeling a little better. My doctor strongly suspects, given the timing, that I had the bug that Scott did. She says that antibiotic side effect usually take a couple of days to get started. Given that my issues started no more than twelve hours after my first dose, she thinks it was the bug. I didn't get as sick with it as either Scott or Cordelia. I'm not sure if that's because my immune system was already up in arms fighting the strep or if the bug wasn't as viral as Scott was told when he went to the doctor.
The thing making me snarl is that my doctor called back to say that the pharmacy has informed her that they can't fill my rescue inhaler prescription because nobody's making that medication any more. I use alupent. I've tried albuterol several times in the last twenty years, and it's never been pretty. The side effects aren't as bad as ceasing to breathe, but they are worse than spending an hour or two coughing after being out in the cold or having to walk out of restaurants at the first whiff of smoke or incense.
I'm very frightened of what happens the next time I get asthmatic bronchitis or anything else that sets off a prolonged problem. It's only happened three or four times in my life, but those occasions are all in the last ten years, three of them in the last five. When that happens, I end up using my rescue inhaler fairly constantly for weeks. During those bouts, I use inhaled steroids, too. I need both.
This isn't going to mean big changes in my everyday life. I use my rescue inhaler maybe once a month under normal circumstances. It's just going to mean that there are chances I can't take. For example, my brother-in-law and his family want to try to fly us out to Seattle to visit. They've been telling me that they've kept their cats out of the downstairs of the house and that that area should be 'cat-free' and safe for me to stay in. With a safe rescue inhaler I might consider trying it. (I'm still dubious that space that shares the same heating/cooling ducts and general air circulation is going to be free of an air-born allergen, and I'm allergic enough for it to be a big risk with a good inhaler, even if it's just the risk of having to pay for a hotel room for the whole of the stay.)
Admittedly, I've only tried albuterol a few times. I used it for two days in the 80s. I was given it for a reaction to an allergy shot in the 90s (without being told what it was). I was given it in the ER for asthmatic bronchitis about three years ago. The first two reactions were clearly bad due primarily to the medication. The third...I was sufficiently sick at the time that it's hard to tell what was the medication and what was the illness. It helped me breathe a little better, I think, but the side effects left me feeling quite as bad as I had when I'd come in. They held me overnight in hopes that they could get me to sleep, but they kept putting more albuterol into me (I'd specifically told them not to, too. I only found out after the fact that, after the first treatment which was something else, they went back to albuterol).
Does anybody else out there have problems using albuterol? Do you have advice for alternatives? For decreasing the side effects? (I get a racing heart that feels like it's trying to escape my chest. I shake to the point that talking is hard, 'tremors' in my back and chest basically. My anxiety goes up which is hard to do when the normal level is somewhere in the stratosphere.)
::sighs:: My doctor's referring me to a pulmonologist in hopes that there's a solution. As long as I take Singulair every day, my asthma is mild 99% of the time. I've got time to look for options.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-19 04:56 pm (UTC)Definitely time to go back to a specialist and see what else is out there. Hopefully by now they have more options for you (even if it's just something where you have to take the albuterol at first, then follow it up with something that's intended to address an ongoing attack but slower to act - I don't know if such a thing exists, but...).
ETA: Also, I'm sure you would and do anyway, but make sure they know that once you get into that state you have ongoing attacks for a while. That's not true of all asthmatics (it wasn't of me: acute attacks were addressed with albuterol, and one or two puffs and that was it as long as I didn't continue to expose myself to whatever triggered it). I'm sure they're considering that scenario, but...just in case.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-24 05:59 pm (UTC)I think that I could tolerate albuterol for single dose issues, the times when I've been out in the cold too long or have been exposed to a perfume or smoke or whatever. Those don't come up very often because I'm careful.
I do take Singulair every day. It's supposed to decrease my vulnerability to the prolonged attacks, and I think that it does work. I've gotten colds while on it without having them get into my lungs. I'm just afraid of not having options when a cold gets past that defense.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-24 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 02:40 am (UTC)