Lung inflammation symptoms and conditions

I was started on Advair HFA about 35 days ago. A little background about me is that I'm 35 years old, in good physical shape. I'm a competitive cyclists doing road races anywhere from 45-100 miles, I work out 2-4 hours everyday. I've had lifelong chronic asthma, but have fought the disease with my healthy lifestyle. I also play the saxophone.

Since I've been on Advair I've developed a constant sore throat. Been coughing up stuff constantly when I'm out training on my bike. Can't seem to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. The worst side affect has been the leg cramps which are killing my training for up coming races. I have constant leg cramps that force me to get out of bed over and over to work them out. My energy levels have dropped to the point that I can't do even half a workout without being totally wiped out. This is coming from a guy that averages 60miles a day on the bike, the other day I couldn't even do 15 miles and had to stop from the constant cramps and tiredness. This stuff is a nightmare. I've gone back to using nothing but my albuterol inhaler. I'll continue to do lung exercises 4 times a day and completely clean up my diet and basically get this stuff out of my system. Let this be a warning that you can't get something positive without something negative as well.

I started taking prednisone along with Cytoxan, a chemotherapy drug 15 years ago when I was diagnosed with an undifferentiated connective tissue disorder that led to symptoms like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. After a couple of years, the inflammation cooled off and I no longer had increasing scar tissue in my lungs (IPF is almost always terminal) so I was glad of that. However, sometime in that first year or so I developed hardish lumps under my skin and severe pain that felt like it was "under my skin" but not my muscles, as in fibromyalgia. The lumps are even more painful, and the skin feels as if someone tried to "skin" me and then just llay the skin back down.
I have had to be on timed-release morphine for years in order to function with this pain, as it is especially painful if I brush up against something or sitting or lying down pressure is intense. Also the skin on my tongue gets so tender I have to use kids' toothpaste or it burns terribly.
After 15 years some of the lumps have gone away, but I've recently had to go back on the prednisone for my lung inflammation.
The last time I got a new prescription for prednisone I read the tissue-paper printout (not the short one you get with every Rx, the one written for professionals which includes all the new data, tests, side effects, etc.) What I want to point out, as I've not read one person saying this, is that to avoid a lot of the side effects and the harm to the glands which produce our own natural steroids, is that they are now recommending that it is taken only EVERY OTHER DAY. They say there may be some slight increase in symptoms on the "off" day, but that this keeps the natural cycle in place in bodies subjected to this drug and therefore reduces symptoms.
This is what my last pulmonologist prescribed for me and so far I have had minimal side effects--no ravenous appetite and weight gain, no "moon face" and it has still helped my symptoms.
Please ask your pharmacist for the flyer that comes with the new package and read this for yourself and then take it to your doctor. It may not work for those in dire need of the prednisone but could perhaps be tapered to this once the first lethal symptoms die down. ASK YOUR DOC--I cannot believe I have not heard more about this as it's right on the flyer--but docs are so busy, it's understandable. I'm grateful my doctor is up on the new research because I don't mind taking the prednisone this time, and I used to HATE it!
Good living to all and I wish you all the healthiest life possible.

I started taking Prednisone in late November for inflammation of my lungs, a complication of influenza A. I started at 50 mg daily, then went to 75, then was hospitalized and went to 160 intravenously. After about a week, I was reduced to 120 then 75 by mouth a few days later. After 15 days in the hospital, I was released only to come back two days later with internal bleeding. I was released two days later and my doctor knocked several days off my withdrawal plan. About midway through all this, I started having a constant mild headache. After my second release, the headache started to get worse. The headache became debilitating and I spent some time in the ER where codeine helped. (I'm allergic to morphine which would have been their choice). The codeine helped for a day or two, but when I got to 60mg of codeine with no effect I gave up on the pills. My doctor gave me some sort of anti-inflammatory shot which helped.

I've been off Prednisone now for over a week and still have a constant headache, but most of the time it's not bad and only moderate at times. On average I see a gradual improvement.

I have had increased appetite and energy (in the beginning) followed by face and neck swelling, headache, nausea, blurred vision, internal bleeding and large muscle weakness.

I know that I needed something to stop my lung inflammation, but the cure has been worse than the disease at this point.

I have been taking Advair for 6 months and also received a set of precautions from my doctor as well. The most important thing he said was to rinse your mouth and gargle with WARM water NOT cold water several times after your dose. That will prevent the hoarseness many people experience.The medication has a steroid component and is very effective treating your lung inflamation. Mouth rinsing keeps this from entering other areas of your body. When you take a drug, there is always some tradeoff. I believe for me that whatever side effects I have are minor compared to the benefit of being able to breathe freely again. I have absolutely no hoarseness , but have some itchiness but I had that before I took this drug. If you follow the directions I believe this drug can work for you.

My sister has been on Lipitor for a few years and has had a chronic lung inflamation that has resulted in the formation of scar tissue. We were wondering if anyone has experienced this as a side effect?

It is amazing that a drug with the these side effects is presrcibed so easily. It seems to affect many people in so many different ways. It addresses the symptoms it is prescribed for but its side effects can be painful and uncomfortable as well as dangerous.

I started a ten day course of prednisone to aleviate lung inflamation due to allegy induce asthma.

Day 1 80mg
Days 2,3,4, 60mg each day
Days 5,6,7, 40mg each day
Days 8,9,10, 20mg per day

It worked well,I was breathing much better the second day and felt good overall.
On day seven I awoke to pain in my left foot. The pain persisted throughout the day. It was not until my girlfriend looked at and felt it that I realized the severity of the situation. She said it was cold and it appeared very white.
I decided to go to the outpatient emergency room, for fear of having a blood clot. They gave me a blood thinner and pain killers and also made an appointment for a arterial specialist. for the next day. I went home that evening and took a lortab and went to bed. Before I fell asleep the pain in my foot became excruciating, and I decided to take another pain reliever and was able to fall asleep for a couple of hours before I was awoken, again in pain. The next day I went to the Arterial Specialist barely able to walk the hallway to his office(it was now affecting both feet).
A sonogram was done on my legs which indicated no clotting.The doctor felt my feet and toes and said they were like ice cubes and noticed the right one was now purpleish blue at the toes as the left had been the night before.
The doctor agreed that the prednisone side effect may be causing my pain. He suggested an angiogram for further diagnosis, but I declined and left assuming the symptoms would lessen over the next few days. I have not taken the prednisone in 5 days and still experience pain and numbness in my feet, pain in my knees and hips and cannot stand or walk for any length of time without pain. I don't know how long this will persist and it seems doctors and people posting to the site can't say either. It would seem the length and severity of the symptoms is as varied as the symptons themselves. It appears to me after reading the postings that individuals are all affected differently (also dosage length of time on prednisone) In my opinion that makes its unpredictability a real risk for any individual.
Still waiting for normal.

I was put on Advair in Dec 05 for chronic lung inflammation. I do not have asthma. Truth be known nobody seems to know what is wrong with my lungs..... After reading some of the postings, I know I'm not becoming a hyperchrodraic. It seems like every week there is something new wrong with me.
It started with my lower arms and hands falling to sleep, to really bad cramps in my lower arms that cause my hands to cripple, to having absolutely no feeling whatsoever on occasional mornings. Within the last 3 weeks my feet get really bad cramps and my toes also cripple and spread really wide during bad ones. Hurts like mad. (Just so you know, for the feet cramping if you run hot water in the tub and stand in it while you go up and down on the balls of your feet until the cramps go away they don't come back for the rest of the night.) To continue..... Last week I started getting muscle aches in my calves. This week I have had a headache every morning and nothing seems to get rid of it. I feel so stiff and old. I have also had searing pain shooting through my right ear occasionally. I see my doc tomorrow and demanding to be taken off of Advair. I'll let you know how it goes and if the side effects go away...... TTYL, Trie