Hard to breathe symptoms and conditions

OMG!! I thought I was losing my mind untiil I read a post here with my symptoms. Sensations of heat and cold at the same time. Very cold and body temp below 97 degrees. Have been on Advair 250/50 for about 2 years. Shortly afterwards, started having low thyroid and hard to maintain weight. Used to be on Albuteral, Atrovent and Pulmocort. Have emphysema along with asthma component. It is hard to breathe for about 30 min after taking Advair. Want to go back to my old meds, or at least try something different like Foradil, maybe.

Feels like im having a heart attack pain in chest and chest is very tight hard to breathe will never take this again.

I have been on Advair 250/50 for about 2 years. About 6 months ago I started experiencing feelings of heat on my back....like hot/cold clammy feeling. Hard to explain. My skin feels cool to the touch even when I feel like I am burning up. I feel more or less normal when I wake up and then progressively get these sensations of heat as the day progresses. The steroid in the Advair makes it hard to keep my weight where it should be. Before I was on Advair, I was on Albuteral inhaler, Atrovent and Azmacort. I notice, too, that immediately after inhaling Advair, it is hard to breathe for about 30 minutes. Hoarse voice comes and goes. I think I will try to go back to my previous meds or maybe ask if I can go on Foradil and another type of inhaled steroid as I have a strong asthma component with my Emphysema.

I've been on Toprol for about a year or so. I have had severe weight gain also while barely eating much. I had high bp to start and the cardiologist told me to lose weight and I'd be fine. But he gave me Toprol and things went from bad to worse. I too have been living in a fog, just super tired, my bp now has been around 40 and low 50s. I'm totally exhausted doing nothing more than walk thru my house. Work has been a nightmare, I do alot of walking and bending. I have been sweating terribly also. My hair will be wringing wet. My new cardiologist said that all my synptoms could be from the Toprol so he cut me to 1/2 dose for 4 days and 1/4 for the next 4 and then off of it. Within one day, I don't feel exhausted or hard to breathe either. I feel about 80% better in one day. I'm definitely not going to take it again. I wouldn't say I was really depressed but just didn't have any energy to do anything, even work. Come home and drop on the sofa and not get up. I feel like a weight has been lifted and I hope my mind clears up also. Sometimes I can't seem to remember anything from one minute to the next. Physically I feel alot better and can't wait to get off it totally. My low bp was the result of the Toprol I guess.

Sarah, Sophie,

Tonight, when I laid down, and on a few other occassions, I have this really heavy feeling like its hard to breathe as if someone were sitting on my chest? Is this like either of your sensations? This follows this fluttery aching squeezing sensation I've had since yesterday morning...

Any other ladies out there who have developed this problem?

I can't believe this-the acid reflux, the plugged up achey ears, and now this chest pain (last 6 months)/been off of Yasmin for 2 months....went onto Orthocept but I think I just have to get off of all bcp's.

J

I can't believe there is a sight for this. For the past year I have been taking Lisinopril. And as of the last 5 months I have become very tired and unmotivted. I get dizzy once in a while and also find it hard to breathe. There seems to be tightening just below my adams apple. I'm going to discontinue the drug and seek another doctor.

Not sure where to begin with my side effects...
The biggest (and scariest) of them is that, since I have been on Advair, I have had more and more severe respiratory problems. Every year, since I began the "medication", I have (at least once per year) bouts of either Bronchitis or Pneumonia (sometimes even both). Advair is obviously formulated to make patients become dependent on the drug to where they can NOT stop taking it. I have even tried to wean myself off of it, but thru this process, I truly felt like I was dying. I struggled so hard to breathe. I eventually had to go to the doctor and get a dose of prednisone and begin Advair again.
Another side effect that torments my every day life is thrush. I can not seem to shake it, no matter how many times I have been treated for it. I ALWAYS rinse after using Advair, with water AND a mouthwash with ingredients that are used in treating thrush.
I have also had other side effects as well. I have a twin sister and she has experienced some of the same. One is a strange "cramping up" or "locking up" of our feet. It's very strange and has NEVER happened to either of us, before Advair. It's painful and we have no control over it. The toes separate/spread and "lock up" in cramping pain that lasts a few moments at a time.
Since being on Advair, I have also had weight-gain. The only reason I mention it is because others have posted it as a side effect. I have never blamed Advair for this, but who knows? I think it's just neglect on my part. ;)
Those are the only that immediately come to mind. If I think of any later on, I will post them. :)

I feel when it wears off and it makes me anxious and its hard to breathe until I take my next one.

I was sent to a pulmonary specialist by my family doctor in late December 2002, and the 'specialist' arbitrarily took me off the Flovent(twice daily) and Albuterol(as needed, and I rarely needed it) a course which I told him had been working well for me for about two years. He said that the new combination of Advair and Combievent would work wonders for me. I had been having two episodes per year of near-pneumonia because of air pollution in the spring and autumn where we live; however, with the use of Flovent twice a day and Albuterol(as needed) and three or four Albuterol nebulizer treatments each spring and autumn at the doctor's office, I was maintaining, staying out of the hospital, and able to work 40 hours a week as a cashier. When I was sent to the pulmonary specialist, it was to be evaluated as to where I stood and what could be done about my allergic-based asthma. (There were just two office visits total.) What I got was an Advair and Combievent nightmare. I kept getting worse and worse. It was hard to breathe, like an elephant sitting on my chest. For the first time, I had shortness of breath all the time. I had to start using oxygen at night and had to use the Albuterol 3 or 4 times a day. I would call the doctor's office and they kept saying that Advair was the best of medicines and no one else had adverse reactions to it and to give it a chance to work. Finally I walked into the office and told them this was not working. Stone wall. So I went home and put myself back on Flovent and Albuterol. I ended up developing pnemonia and spent 5 days in the hospital in February, 2003. I am on medical leave from work and I'm miserable. I don't know if I'll ever get back to feeling as good as I did when I walked into that specialist's office in December, 2002. Want to insert here that the pulmonary specialist sent me next door for a cardiac test with ultra sound which should have taken less than half an hour. That technician said he couldn't get a good image, so he would have to do another type of testing. Two and one-half hours and $2,000.00 later, the pulmonary specialist sent me to the hospital for breathing tests. His office two office visits and those breathing tests were another $1,900.00. What did I get? Worse health and a complete mistrust of the entire medical profession. I hope I get better, but I have my doubts. This whole experience has knocked me for a loop. c. austin