Lung specialist symptoms and conditions

I just started it yesterday, 3 doses of Advair discus in combo with methylprednisolone to treat this "post viral asthma".
Every time I take these meds, i experience tightness in my chest, difficulty breathing and a constant tickle in my throat leading me to cough a lot sometimes so much that i almost vomit.

Cannot handle this anymore. Need advice. Thank you

I have been taking prednisone on and off since '04, totally unaware of the problems associated with it. In '07 I got double pneumonia and almost died, and that resulted in nearly 3 months of the 6 I was sick, of on and off prednisone use. I have never recovered from it, the inflammation that kept me from breathing and nearly killed me, comes right back within 2 weeks now, and back on the prednisone I go for another 2-3 weeks. I have been sick now for almost 14 months like this. What saved my life from pneumonia, now appears to be taking it slowly.

My doctor said I have to come off of it, or it will kill me. As it is, without it, I'm like someone with emphysema and I've never smoked a day in my life. At present, I have refused to do the re-dose, and my abdomen is so swollen it hurts and is so tight you could bounce a quarter off of it. My ankles, which never swelled before, now swell constantly and I now have to take a water pill now to wear shoes.

I'm 52 years old and had never been on ANY long term MEDS AT ALL, until they put me on prednisone. Now I take half a dozen. If there is any way, any of you can NOT take it, don't do it, not even for a short time unless it's the only thing that will save your life. It is like inviting a cobra into your home and then sitting there watching and waiting for it to make it's final strike. I think it has damaged me beyond repair. I go to a lung specialist the end of month.

Hi - I was on advair for a couple of weeks after a horrible bout of asthmatic bronchitis. I now have this constant pressure under my rib cage that will not go away. I was wondering if any one else has experienced this while on or after stopping advair. Thanks and happy holidays!

I promised to write on this board & get the message out in the event that they figured out what was wrong with me after

approximately 4 months of progressive shortness of breath. In April/May 2008, I felt a very slight pain in my chest/lung

area. At first I thought I may have stretched a muscle during basketball, working out or painting a house. I went to my

primary care physician who ordered an X-Ray & a CT Scan. The CT scan showed some consolidation. At this time I had no

shortness of breath and played basketball for hours a day. I merely had a very slight feeling of pain in my chest area when

breathing deep. My primary care physician based on the xray/ct scan results and my concerns, sent me to a lung specialist.

The lung specialist gave me a pulmonary function test, one with and without a bronchiodilater. The specialist indicated that

I have Asthma. I refuted & said that I have never been diagnosed with Asthma and how would that be possible? I ran the 2 mile

in JR High school, played basketball all the time & am extremely athletic. At the age of 32 I've been working out on the

bench with 225 lbs and been playing basketball in leagues forever. In any case, the doctor said that I had exercise induced

asthma and stated that I likely had asthma but never caught it. ----- I did not believe it or agree. I was put on Proventil.

For whatever reason, I got very sick the next day after visiting with the lung specialist for several days & recovered about

10 days after my visit. I believed it was from taking the bronchiodilater or being on their machine or around all the sick

people - who knows to this day.

I failed to mention that my specialist did not view my CT Scan or XRay while diagnosing my problem, he relied solely on my

Pulmonary test. He said he'd get the CT Scan/XRays, review & give me a follow up call. He never called. I started calling a

couple weeks after my visit to see if he had seen my reports, but no response and my condition was not getting better. I

tried taking proventil twice a day, then just 20 minutes prior to my basketball game and even during my basketball game. I

tried everything, but nothing improved.

I dropped off the CT Scan cd for the lung specialist to review, since they stated they never received it from the hospital.

--- I had no problem getting it, why would a doctors office have problems getting it & if they couldn't get it, then why

weren't they calling me?????

Finally in late July, I was able to schedule an appointment with the lung specialist again. The lung specialist did another

CT Scan & Pulmonary Test. The verdict after reviewing these tests - the specialist states that I don't have Asthma. I refuted

again & pleaded with the doctor that I had a serious problem & could not play basketball like I use to. I could no longer jog

50 yards before short of breath. He then suggested I try their bike test with EKGs and measurements of my breathing. I got on

the bike & in approximately 4 minutes I was short of breath and my oxygen levels went from 95 to below 90!!!! I could barely

bike anymore.

The verdict after the bike test, my lung specialist indicated that the results looked odd, but more than likely it's

exercise induced asthma yet again. He prescribed me ADVAIR.

I took ADVAIR as prescribed 2x a day. My condition got progressively worse....shortness of breath even worse... it got to a

point that I could not walk 100 feet with my briefcase without being short of breath. I was starting to get very irritable &

stressed as a result. I read all the online side effects about ADVAIR leading me to this website & was disturbed by the

readings like all the others. I scheduled another appointment with the lung specialist to tell him my feelings & that Advair

was not helping after a month.

He indicated that the report received from my CT SCAN A MONTH AGO showed some calcification in one of my lower left arteries

& that I should visit a cardiologist to take a look. He prescribed 2 months more of ADVAIR to see if I'd improve, because it

takes time apparently.

I met with the cardiologist the next day, they did a Stress Test & Echo cardiogram. The stress test showed up normal & the

echo came back ABNORMAL. It indicated that I had pressure on one side of my heart due to the lungs not receiving or

exchanging enough oxygen for some unexplained reason!!

The cardiologist stated that we'd have to do a Cardiac Cath to determine the cause & treatment. This seemed very major & can

be a risky procedure although done frequently I was told.

Another CT Scan was performed. AND FORTUNATELY, now listen up..... A VQ SCAN was ordered up to be performed before the

Cardiac Cath. During a VQ Scan they inject radio iodine and have you breath-in a radio active substance. THE VQ SCAN SHOWED

BLOOD CLOTTING ON BOTH SIDES OF MY LUNGS!!!!

I am literally now in the Hospital being treated CORRECTLY for blood clotting and on blood thinners. The moral of the story

on this message board for ME is THAT ADVAIR WAS NOT HELPING, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THE RIGHT TREATMENT. I was MISDIAGNOSED and

there was not enough follow up from the doctors in my perception, because it took approximately 4 MONTHS to determine.

If I had stayed on ADVAIR, supposedly treating "exercise induced asthma", then I may have DIED due to LUNG FAILURE or HEART

FAILURE!

DISCLAIMER - I am not a doctor & this is only a synopsis of my personal experience. Again, I promised to share this

information, so others could hopefully benefit.

My recommendation - If you never had asthma are athletic over the age of 30 and the doctor prescribes ADVAIR for ASTHMA, then

I would highly recommend you have a VQ(Perfusion) scan performed. I hope this saves someones misery or life.

I'm still in the hospital, they are treating my blood clots and continue to try to determine the cause of my blood clots. If

anyone has any theories as to where my small blood clots may have come from, then please oblige.

I am a 50 year old women. I had bronchitis that turned into severe asthma.
Could not stop coughing. I have been on Singulair for over a year. Have had weight gain, Hand numbness,Stomach problems. Even had an colonoscopy but turned up nothing. Now I understand after reading all these posts. The weight gain alone was driving me crazy. Limiting myself to 1200-1400 calories, eating only lean meats and vegetables.Exercising and loosing MINIMAL weight over a 4 month period. I felt like I was doing something wrong. Ive thrown my Singulair away after reading your posts. Will figure out something else if my allergies and or asthma flairs. Just not worth it. Will repost after Ive been off a while.

OMG! This site is awesome! I honestly thought I was going crazy and something else was wrong with me! I quit smoking back in Dec 2007 and early Jan 2008 I was diagnosed with bronchitis. The bronchitis eventually got worse and at the end of Jan dr put me on steroid packs and an inhaler to assist me with the congestions. Early Feb I was diagnosed with Chronic bronchitis and was sent to a lung specialist. My lungs were only expanding 40% capacity due to the infection in my lungs so I was prescriped the inhaler, antibiotics, seven days of seroid and the Advair twice a day. I have now been using the Advair about three weeks and even though I feel a whole lot better my side effects are bad. I have a lot of congestion still, especially in the mornings, I cough almost all day long, I sleep maybe four or five hours a night (if that), my mood swings are aweful, I have a sharp pain under neath my left arm pit every once in a while, my rib cage hurts 24/7, I get headaches at least once a day, my nose is bleeding at least once a day and my hands tingle all the time. I did not realize that all these symptoms were side effects to the Advair dosage... 250/50???? OMG... I have to stop taking it. I've never had allergies or asthma up until the chronic bronchitis but if these are side-effects to the Advair I wonder if I was just not better off fighting the bronchitis through antibiotis only. I have not experianced weight gain though, and I am thankful for that as I do not need to gain any more weight. :-) Thank you all for sharing your comments as I now know that I might be just fine using allergy medicines and an inhaler from time to time instead of using Advair twice a day.

My daughter has been taking Singulair for almost 2 years now. She's 71/2 years old now. It seems like she's very hard to wake in the mornings and complains that she's still sleepy despite 10 hours of sleep. Also she makes a very strange sound during the night like she's scratching her throat and complains of sore throat in the mornings. Has anyone else had this experience with Singulair? I want to take her off. Is it safe to stop this drug without weaning it?

I really felt the need to post my story about Advair. I started having seizures 2 years ago. I have been seeing a neurologist since then. In the mean time, I have been working with a lung specialist for asthma/COPD. I was placed on Advair. Over several months I started experiencing vision changes, muscle pain, muscle cramps, headaches, weight gain, confusion, trouble speaking, constantly clearing my throat, severe pain near my left armpit, with sever muscle tightening. The muscle tightening was so severe that my arms and legs started moving and twisting by themselves. This is called agentatious movements. The neurologist has been putting me through a battery of tests because these symptoms can be from a severe neurological disease. As of now, I have been passing them with flying colors.The neurologist thinks I am faking, or these symptoms are a figment of my imagination because he cannot find a reason for them. That's when I decided to start checking the side affects of all my medications, and found this site. I have printed off all the stories that match my symptoms and will take them to the neurologist to prove I am not a nut case, and them I will see my lung specialist and take care of getting off the Advair. It does work, but there has to be something else in the medical world than can help us breathe without feeling like we are dying other wise. I want to thank everyone for putting their story out there is is a great help to know you are not alone. Good luck!

my daughter has been on Singulair for 4 days now. She is 2 years old and has bad food allergies that cause very bad eczema. She also has been diagnosed with the start of asthma. After going to an allergist, we were told that she should try Singulair and Allegra for a couple of months to treat her seasonal allergies which have been causing coughing at night and skin break-outs, etc. A day or so after she took the medicine ( Singulair chewable tablets- I haven't started the Allegra yet, it seemed like too much for her to be on ) she has been having very loose stools, and quite a few throughout the day. Also she has hive- like bumps on her back. I stopped giving it to her the day before yesterday because the medicine was the only new thing she had been introduced too. The stools seemed to slow down and the hives seemed to be going away, but she was coughing bad last night, so I gave it to her again thinking maybe all she had was a stomach bug. But this morning we made countless potty stops and her back is bumpy again. Does anyone else have this problem?

I'm 50 years old. Have been on beta blockers for at least 10 years. Recently I developed a wheezing and then got the cold from hell. I was referred to a lung specialist who asked me to stop taking Toprol-XL immediately as it was causing me to wheeze and have shortness of breath. I stopped taking Toprol and the wheezing stopped. I'm still coughing though. I hope it goes away soon. I think I'm going to look into natural cures for my hypertension. These meds have too many side effects.

In March 2007, Advair was prescribed to me from a lung specialist in which my primary dr recommended i go see.
It took me a while to get used to this medication as I never felt it worked properly as I inhaled the medication, I have said to a friend of mine over and over again that I don't think this medication agrees with me. For some reason, I felt it never did anything for me. Well lo and behold, the other day I decided to resume using it. I thought I was going to die. I had such a choking fit and could not grasp my breath. Today is Sunday but tomorrow I will be reporting this to my Dr.
I thought I was imagining things but now I've researched Advair side effects and I personally don't think this drug is safe, or at least for me it's not.

My GP put me on Advair in the summer of 2006 because I was having trouble with so much phlegm in my throat and losing my voice by using Combivent. I also have a weakened voice as a result of asthma medication. For the first three weeks the Advair was great. Then one weekend at our cabin, I had a severe asthma attack -- to the point that my husband wanted to pack up and drive an hour to an hospital emergency ward. I thought it was from something in the cabin or in the air. As a result of some research on Advair, I truly believe that it was from taking this medication. Not realizing this, I have continued to take Advair at the advice of my GP. I then noticed that my skin was very itchy, mostly on my legs at that time. My GP said it was excema. It started spreading to my hands, wrists, elbows. I started reading about the side effects of Advair -- from the insert that comes with the discus -- itchy skin is one of the side effects listed. In December 2006, I went to the lung specialist that has been treating me for asthma for several years. I asked him about the itching and mess on my wrists, etc. He indicated that it was excema and not a reaction to the Advair -- and proceeded to write me a presription for more Advair. In January 2007, I went back to my GP because I couldn't stand the itching and red blotches anymore. She wouldn't give me anything to relieve it, but sent me to an allergist. I asked him about the mess my skin was in and he told me that it was very rare that someone would react to Advair in this manner and he didn't think that was the cause. He decided that I was allergic to dog and cat dander. Just the other day I was finally sent to a dermatologist. She was appalled at the condition of my skin, as the ithing and redness had now started to spread to my upper arms, under arms, breasts and stomach area. I took some research about Advair with me to this appointment. She has now taken me off the Advair for a two week trial and given me an ointment help with the healing. Finally, a specialist that really might think the Advair is the cause of this itching all over my body. I sure hope that these doctors will realize that I really have an adverse reaction to Advair and will find another medicaiton that will be suitable, but not cause the problems I am having now. my voice is still strained, but I am sure as the Advair leaves my system, this will improve too.

Hello- I was Dx with Sarcoidosis in February, 2007. My lung specialist put me on 20mg Prednisone, increasing to 40mg within two weeks. My Sarcoid symptoms were from enlarged lymph- extreme trouble breathing, middle and lower back pain, kidney pain. Within a week of being at the 40mg level my heart rate and BP became so erratic that he had to start weaning me down. Initially I had extreme energy which felt good after suffering from fatigue but was short lived due to the cardiac problems.

The Prednisone has resolved much of my inflammation for the Sarcoid but I will not go on this again. I have been weaning now for over three weeks. Down under 5mg of Prednisone and it is almost unbearable. Each time I took a drop my mental symptoms became intolerable. Anxiety, extreme fatigue with extreme weakness, irrational thoughts, blurred vision. Within the last couple of days I could hardly get myself out of bed. My weight has increased steadily, bloating stomach, stiff joints, skin rash.

My biggest complaint is that doctors are not giving us enough information as to how this will affect from a negative side. Yes, it takes care of the inflammation but no one prepared me for these awful side effects and withdrawal symptoms. I feel like a nut case most of the time with no coping skills.