I'm not sure what to think about Advair. My 16 yr old son has asthma & has been on Advair for a few years & did well for the most part. While on vacation last summer he came down w/2 ear infections & quickly went downhill. He had an attack & was nearly closed up completely; went to the ER & received several breathing treatments, a steroid shot & was released w/oral steroid prescription/antibiotics. The next afternoon he had another attck & went back to the ER. He was given breathing treatments & then an IV steroid treatment. He immediately got a raging headache & got morphine for the pain, started severely hallucinating & violently flipped for hours. He eventually was well enough to leave & woke up the next morn as a vegetable. Didn't know where he was...was hallucinating, couldn't walk etc. We went back home to his family doctor. It turned out the steroids was the culprit. I didn't know Advair was a form of steroid, & the IV steroids caused his psychosis, & he just had too much steroids in his system overall. A few days later he came out of it. My mother had said she heard Advair can cause severe infections & actually worsen asthma. I asked his DR & he said there were other reasons for those problems which didn't pertain to my son, so he's still taking Advair.
Ever since that episode, he is much more susceptible to EVERYTHING. First semester of school he missed a total of 10 days. He'd also been having horrible mood swings, could not sleep at night & then went into a depression. So he was precribed a low dosage of Elavil. This was about 10 weeks ago. 12 days ago he started wheezing & coughing, so we did his at home nebulizer treatments. He went to the DR & was diagnosed w/bronchitus & was given a Z-pak. Last weekend he worsened, took him back to the DR Monday & was diagnosed w/walking pnemonia. He was given another Z-pak & oral steroids. He's slowly getting better, but has missed 9 days of school & I don't know when he'll be well enough to return.
My mom researched Advair again & found that you shouldn't take it w/Elavil, which he is still taking. She also found that side effects from Advair are eveything my son is dealing with. My husband thinks she's nuts, but I have to wonder can Advair actually be making my son worse?