Feeling angry symptoms and conditions

Our 3 1/2 year old son has been in the ER or hospitalized for respiratory illnesses complicated by asthma since he was 7 months old at least every 6 months. Last October, his doctor prescribed Singulair and a miracle occurred. He rarely required albuterol (which has interesting side-effects of its own). Last May, we came to a mile-stone. One of the side-effects of Singulair as noted on the prescription pamphlets are ear infections. Our son experienced his first of four ear infections in his life. During the summer, our early talker began to stutter severly. Always cheerful, peaceful, and amiable, he began to display extreme aggression, including hitting, complaints of feeling angry and sad, and destructive use of his toys, which he always cared for in the past. Anxiety began to plague this little boy, to the extent of dramatic displays of hyterical tears over being away from my husband and I, even when he was with his best bud, his grandmother. A child who loved to read and play quietly for hours could no longer stand his old activities and his attention span dramatically dropped.
With the observations and suggestions of family and friends, my husband and I began to monitor and look for what we may be doing differently to bring about such frightening changes in our precious son., to no avail. We ceased to use of Alburtol in August, with no noted changes. Two weeks ago,
our little guy came down with a cold. Having used aromatherapy for ourselves for years and considering our boy's age, we decided to try Citrus limon (lemon) and Eucalyptus radiata. We ceased the use of Singulair for the durations, for fear of contraindications. To our absolute amazement, our son began to return to us. He went back to his favorite activities with the attention span before the onset of the symtoms discussed above. His stuttering decreaased by 90% and he no longer expressed sadness and anger, but spoke of smiles and laughter. The aggression seemed to us to cut itself by half. At the end of the cold, we resumed the Singulair and within 12 hours, he began to stutter severly, began to pound on his toys and to continually express sadness and crying. On Nov 4, we discovered this website (thank you !!!!!) and we were in his pediatrician's office on Saturday morning to discuss removing M. from Singulair. He has been off the medicine, except for one dose last Wednesday for two weeks now. The stuttering is 90% gone, he can now be comforted and redirected if my husband or I are out of the room, he expresses a desire to socialize, and his aggressive behavior towards others and his play has decreased by approx 75%.
Just a couple of additional thoughts:
1. Has anyone done any medical research in regards to dosage of this medication and the young? Surely 6 months of blissful relief from asthma and ER visits is worthy of attention, but does the dosage need to be more closely monitored and considered for the young? Too bad I am not a research scientist.
2. If you are considering trying aromatherapy for the first time, may I suggest that you be sure to consult with an Advanced Clinical Aromatherapist. Our FDA does not yet monitor the quality of Essential oils used in our country, nor does our gov't set guidelines for training aromatherapists. The Adv Clinical Aromatherapist we consult with is trained out of Europe where these oils are used medicinally, as prescribed by physicians. For more information, please refer to The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy at www. NAHA.org or email them at INFO@NAHA.org

I am so thrilled to have stumbled across this site. So many lightbulbs are going on. I have been gathering pieces of the Advair complications in my life just recently after taking it for years. Finally so many things are making sense. I started taking Advair 100/50 in 1996, and like most people, I had almost immediate relief of symptoms. My alupent inhalers that I used to puff on regularly started to expire before I was even 1/3 of the way through them. What a miracle!
I experienced no MAJOR side effects until my dosage was bumped up last fall to the 250.

From that point on, I have experienced:

* a chronic raw, gravelly sore throat. I saw a specialist (who knew what amount of Advair I was on and never mentioned this as a possibility) He sent me on my way with a pamphlet on heart burn. I don't have heart burn, and my friends joke that I have a permanent new, husky smoker's voice!

* severe dry skin and horrible eczema, concentrated mainly on my lower legs and ankles-- this started almost exactly one month after my dosage was increased but I didn't make the connection

* thinning hair

* cuts, sores slow to heal

* yeast infections are a frequent and nasty visitor

* swelling in my ankles

* toe and leg cramps

* slight weight gain

* irritability-- my typically sunny attitude has shifted to a lot of depression and feelings of anger off and on

Also, like so many others here, when I tried to talk to the Dr. about decreasing my level of Advair, she told me not to mess with success and wanted to hear nothing about it. When I flat out asked her what the long term consequences could be of inhaling steroids, she responded by saying "Well, you don't absorb them in your system since you are inhaling it, so there's obviously nothing to worry about! Harumph.." She acted like it was the stupidest question she had ever heard and left me feeling angry and frustrated.

I consulted with my dermatologist in regards to my eczema.. I have almost been scratching my legs until they bleed because the itching is so insufferable and nothing has been alleviating the symptoms. She confirmed that the Advair use could definitely be linked to my increasing, chronic skin problems. Another patient in their practice had developed full blown Cushing's Syndrome after years of excessive inhaled cortisone. Her skin was thin and papery and her whole system was a mess.

I have an appt with a new dr. this week to begin a regimen of weaning off this stuff. I am quite scared and only wish I would have connected the dots sooner. It was my German brother-in-law, a doctor, who raised red flags with me when I told him about my symptoms and showed him the dosage of Advair I was taking twice a day. He was quite stunned and quickly convinced me the severity of the situation.