Lemons symptoms and conditions

I am a 45 year old black female who was placed on Avdair in September of 2009. In the beginning before Advair, I had never had any respiratory problems. It began with wheezing only at night lying down and slight chest congestion. My doctor diagnosed me with acute bronchitis and placed me on antibiotic Zithromax which did not completely clear me up, so he prescribed Bactrim for 10days which did. I thought I was home free until maybe 3-5 days after completion of the antibiotics, I started wheezing again one night and the next morning I was severely short of breath. I was able to get through that morninig long enough to get to my doctor, who prescribed Advair 50/100 twice daily. I was very skeptical about taking it, but when you think this breath will be your last, then you do what you have to do. I've been on Advair now for 6 months and It has been the miracle drug for me so far. I tried to wean myself off 3weeks afterwards, but have been unsuccessful. My throat starts to close after missing 2 doses and the asthma symptoms return. The only side effects I have had is a froggy throat,decreased smell and taste sensation, sneezing upon awakening and a little weight gain which may or may not be related since I am so preoccupied with breathing that I am not watching my diet or exercising regularly. I was very depressed about having to be on Advair since this is so life altering for me. I asked my doctor what caused all of this and he said it is allery related, he did not give me an asthma diagnosis. I just know that this works for me and I have come to the conclusion that I will be on it for the rest of my life. I am still in disbelief that this suddenly happened to me, but life throws you lemons sometimes. Im happy that Advair is my lemonade!

The moon face and weight gain did not occur until week 4. But I started really drinking a lot of water - at least 100-120oz daily. This helped the moon face considerably, as well as start me on losing some of the extra weight. Be careful of sodium in the diet - that is the reason for the bloating. So - tons of water (try to get it in early in the day, that way you are not rushing to fit in all that water close to bedtime) and working out four times a week helps with the moon face and bloating. But I still can't get rid of obsessive thoughts - such as cleaning my house or finding a good price on lemons. I hope that goes away when I am off the Pred.