Moderate asthma symptoms and conditions

I have no idea what most of you are saying. My son has cronic severe asthma and there have been times where he has been close to dying. He is 8 yrs old and been through a lot more than most people have been their entire lives. He has been on singulair for about 6 or 7 yrs now and he hasn't any problems with side effects that any of you are talking about. Before he was put on singulair controlling his asthma was almost impossible. For the parents who have not given ao have just stop giving their children their medication just like that. You should talk to you doctors because I know first hand how dangerous asthma can be. If any parent has ever had to rush their child to the ER and then you child was put into the icu for weeks at a time. You will think you lucky stars there is a medicine like singulair out there. Thank You for letting me share my story.

My daughter has moderate asthma with occasional severe attacks. She's been on Singulair since she was 13; she is now 24. It has definitely helped her asthma a great deal, but now, when she misses a dose, or in the most recent event, she missed several days, she becomes allot more tight and has more difficulties sooner than it was like before she got on singulair at age 13. She is back on it now after being off for 5 days and is getting some relief. I wonder if her body has become dependent on it, or so accustomed to it that she now has to have it. A doctor a few years ago, said that means her asthma has gotten worse, but I suspect the dependency factor rather than her getting worse. Anyone have that experience?/

I was diagnosed with asthma as a child. In late teens it seemed to not be problem, however after 50, I started developing symptoms of asthma again as evidenced from COPD tests. I am currently using Advair 250/50 since 55 yo.

One symptom, that I have not seen addressed here is that of "slow healing" after injuries. I injured my back awhile ago, and it seemed like 2 years before most of my symptoms were gone. To this day I still feel lingering effects. Then I scraped my shinbone. It seemed like it took forever to heal, and now there is an ugly red/purple scar where the minor scrape was.

I had never taken so long to heal before, and read that this was a problem with taking Advair. I never figured my asthma was that serious in the first place, so I simply cut back on the Advair to once/day or less as it seems still to keep my breathing OK. Sometimes, after a few days of not taking Advair, I feel some minor difficulty with breathing.

Now that I am 63, and so concerned about "slow healing", which I attribute to Advair, I have asked my Dr. to perhaps take me off Advair and simply take Albuterol when needed. Then I read that Asthma patients should only use Albuterol if that is sufficient to control symptoms and to advance to Advair to control more severe symptoms. Another article says that Albuterol does not heal Asthma, only assists with sudden onset of breathing difficulties and that I may still damage my lungs if I do not take Advair.

I remain at a loss as to what is best: Taking Albuterol when needed (perhaps a few to several times/week) or as I was doing before, contrary to recommended dosage, of 1-2 times/day. Fortunately my Dr. goes along with my changes, but tells me if symptoms get worse, she will put me on Advair 2X's/Day (which I probably will ignore dosage because of healing side effects, and use once/day or less).

I will report back later after trying Albuterol for time without the use of Advair at all.

I am a 25 year old female and I have only been on advair for less than a month. I have already gained ten pounds!!! I also have the very hoarse voice (sometimes i can hardly talk) the leg cramps and that constant feeling of something in my throat that I just can't clear, not to mention the occasional blurred vision. I was prescribed the advair because I have moderate asthma...I really think its making it worse. So sorry that all these people had to go through what they did but I am very thankful that they shared their stories. I was unsure of whether or not I should stop taking this...now I have made up my mind that I am.

Our son was put on Singular almost 2 years ago to help with his "moderate" asthma. It has been the hardest 2 years for our family. My son who was already very senstive became very depressed. He showed no interest in anything. He was always sad and very down on himself. He had awful night terrors/nightmares. He didn't want to go to school or do anything. We continued to sign him up for sports/piano/scouts and it was a battle to get him to go. He always had headaches, which I thought were because of dehydration and made him drink water. We had him seeing a therapist trying to help him with the sleeping problems and the depression. We switched his room with his sister to physically make him closer to us at night. He was anxious and very irritable. If something went wrong, he couldn't handle it and had complete meltdowns. If he didn't eat anything for a while and his blood sugar got low, he was uncontrollable. To add to the problem was he was never hungry so I would have to force him to eat something about every 2-3 hours to prevent the meltdown.

The good news is that he has been off of Singular for over a month now and he is a new kid. He is excited to go to practice and will ask his dad to play catch with him in the yard. He is happier and we have not heard once "this is the worst day ever" which we had heard all the time before. He has not had one headache and seems to have a little bit of his appetite back. He is happy and holding his head high. Now, he still doesn't want to go to school (what 8 year old boy does), but he doesn't fight me when I tell him it is time to go. He does not have the meltdowns or the irritability. He even showed some empathy to my husband last week.

My husband and I are amazed at how different he is. We are also very upset that for almost 2 years we made his life miserable by forcing him to take this drug. I think for kids that are already sensitive to things it heightens everything! I am filing a complaint with the FDA and spreading the news to all my family and friends. I hope this information helps! I know I have learned a lot from reading these posts.

From England 1998:

Montelukast

Montelukast (Singulair) is a leukotriene antagonist for use as an add-on therapy in patients with mild to moderate asthma who are inadequately controlled by inhaled corticosteroids and short acting beta2-agonists. Since it was marketed in January 1998, CSM Mersey has received 31 yellow cards detailing 47 suspected reactions to montelukast including:
• 15 (32%) CNS disorders including headache and drowsiness
• 14 (30%) GI disorders including abdominal pain and indigestion
• 5 (11%) skin disorders including sweating
• 7 (15%) musculoskeletal disorders including arthralgia and cramps
• 2 (4%) psychiatric disorders.
26 of these reactions were not listed in the Summary of Product Characteristics at the time of reporting.

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~druginfo/csm/ADR_bulletin14.pdf

My ten-year old son began taking Singulair two years ago to control infrequent, light to moderate asthma. I would say it is in the past year that noticeable, and extreme changes occurred in his health and personality. The list of negative changes is a long one. His physical symptoms have included:
frequent, unexplainable bouts of stomach cramping and diarrhea
Painful light sensitivity, listlessness, tiredness, inability to fall asleep, inability to wake up.

The mental/mood changes have been the most devastating. They include:

Withdrawal from friends and family.
Isolating behavior.
Unprovoked anger.
Dislike of being touched
Spaceyness/disorganization/forgetfulness
Depression
Lack of interest in school
Inability to wake in the morning (on weekends sleeping till one pm.)
Loss of interest in hobbies
Aggression
Mood swings (from placid to intense rage)
Talk of wanting to be abandoned
Loss of self-esteem
No joy ever

My son was once considered one of the smartest boys at school. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Talented Youth program. He performed several levels above his grades in math. Last year all this extraordinary promise began to slip away. This is documented at his school. Recently a math test was given and he scored in the lower third. This may sound like no big deal, “so what if a kid performs below expectations,” but this was my child’s identity slipping away. What once came to him so easily was mysteriously vanishing. It felt like his brain had stopped developing. He no longer wanted to read, (once a favorite activity.) He began to lose interest in music, (once a passionate pursuit). I could go on and on about how his personality changed. About how his friends fell away. He once was a popular, fun-loving kid. What is the most upsetting and inexplicable was his constant sadness and dissatisfaction with life. He frequently said, “I have nothing good in my life.” And, “Why don’t you drop me off somewhere so I can live by myself on the street.” I couldn’t make any sense of comments like these. We had a happy family. Our house used to be full of laughter and fun activities. We have another son, two years younger, who would cry at the changes he was seeing in his brother who no longer wanted to go outside to play, or was even willing to talk to him. They were once best friends. If my younger son tried to make a joke he would be attacked physically. I could find no explanation and so told myself it must be adolescence come early. Friends of mine asked me if my son was sick and they told me they privately worried about his obvious depression. Nothing made sense.

The most devastating episode that happened was finding under his bed some writings where he talked about how the world was a miserable place with no chance of getting better. The only solution would be for him to die and fly away. This is coming from my sweet ten year old son, who once had such a love of life and learning. How could a boy this young be thinking of suicide? It seemed incomprehensible to me. It broke my heart. The next day (12 days ago) I saw on the evening news the report about Singulair being linked to suicidal thoughts. I WAS STUNNED. It all began to make sense. I pulled him off the drug that night and the change was immediate. For the first time in years he fell asleep before midnight. I have heard his beautiful laugh for the first time in months. He wants to go outside and throw the football with his brother. There have been many breakthroughs since he stopped the drug a week ago. I just hope they continue and my once learning-hungry, loving little boy returns to me.

Been using Advair for about 3 months for slight to moderate asthma. Another post noted severe leg cramps, and I was very surprized to read this becasue I have been experiencing them too. Very painful worst than the worst charlie horse type pains that reduce in severity rather quickly. These are monsters and also in the middle of the night.

My voice has been getting more raspy and fainter. I never even thought to attribute these symtoms to Advair.

I am a nursing mother with moderate asthma that is pretty well-controlled during non high allergy months. My allergist put me on Singulair before I was a mom. The 10mg dosage was way too much for me, backaches and headaches and restless feeling. I went down to 5mg and it was better. I went off of it when the allergy season was gone. My allergist suggest I try it again. I've taken it once or twice since I've been nursing and I usually take the 5mg dosage. I notice dramatic behavior changes in my baby each time. Crankiness, more angry and high anxiety (much more clingy than usual). He is about 2 years so the allergist said it shouldn't affect him negatively. Needless to say, I am taking myself off of it again and staying off this time. At least until I have weaned my dairy intolerant kiddo.

I'm glad to have found this website!

Like many of you, I experienced weight gain (all around the middle); high blood pressure; already had an irregular heart beat; chronic sinusitius with thick thick mucous constantly running down the back of my throat (antibiotics offered no relief); the need to clear my throat many times before I could speak; and the terrible sounding voice. In addition, I had the worst leg crams inaminable in the upper thighs. These cramps completely paralyzed my ability to move and they came on n the middle of the night. Also developed dry skin and break outs on the scalp requiring the use of special shampoos. Two doctors told me they had never heard of any of these symptoms. . .told me that over and over and over and wanted to add drugs for blood pressure, sprays for the sinuses. . .had no idea why the voice even bothered me. Now the clincher is that I was on Advair for 2 years. At the time I started I had a diagnoses of moderate asthma. Two years later - of continuing to faithfully take the medication - I have a diagnoses of emphysema with only 46% capacity for oxygen/carbon dioxide excahnge. I am a non smoker (never smoked) and genetics was ruled out in a test. The doctors STILL want me to continue on Advair. The urrent pulmonologist insistes he, too, has NEVER heard any of these side effects and cannot imagine why I think any of them are connected to Advair. Needless to say, he apparently hasn't ever read the Advair insert as the company now owns up to at least a few. I wonder if . . instead of posting OUR eamil addresses and names (leaving us open to SPAM . .. we start naming the physicians who tell us they have NEVER heard these syptoms before. They can, truthfully, only make that statement one time each . . . after that they are out and out lying and if thier name in here we'll all know who they are. I no longer take Advair . . am very fearful of my lung disease and very inquisitive as to how my condiition could deteriorate so completely while I was following all the medical advice; even allowing myself to be convinced that the doctors are right. And, my blood pressure is now normal and I have lost 20 pounds so far. Everyone wants to know which diet I am following and I just say I have "changed a few habits."