Advair Diskus and lungs

Maybe I'm not crazy after all. I'm a 55-year-old female who has been taking Advair for close to 5 years. I have adult onset asthma and was using Albuterol to control it until my allergist placed me on Advair. It does a great job on my asthma, but at what price? During that time I've gained weight regardless of my diet and exercise regimen. I feel like I haven't slept in years and I'm convinced that it will eventually kill me because that makes everything else so much more difficult to deal with. I'm having major hair loss, hoarseness (I really miss singing), heart palpitations, extreme fluctuating blood pressure, heartburn, lethargy, blurred vision, twitching muscles. I finally decided that I had to change something and I found this website last week. I quit Advair cold-turkey. Probably not the right thing to do, but I was really on the brink. It's been nearly a week and I'm having extreme dizziness, terrible vision problems and awful headaches, but I am persevering.

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.

I started taking Advair 250/50 when I couldn't get any air in the upper part of my lungs. I was diagnosed with asthma as a child, but hadn't experienced it since I was 11. I am 21 now, and I have panic attacks, pain in legs (pain in my thighs, and it feels like a rubber band wrapped around my knees) and arms, splitting headaches, hyper-sensitivity, mood swings, back pain, heart racing for no reason(especially at night, it wakes me up), insomnia, pain in my chest (mostly on the left side near my arm pit that feels like muscle tightness), I sometimes get sharp pain in my chest if I take a deep breath, I've gained 40 lbs. in the past 8 months, and I am a nervous, emotional wreck. A year and a half ago, I was a completely different person. I've been to the doctor, and they can't find anything wrong with me. Although I am overweight now, my cholesterol and blood pressure are perfect, there is nothing wrong with my lungs (barring asthma). I am in great health, and yet I feel awful. All the time. I have no idea what to do, because my doctor's have told me that the only known side effects of Advair is potential damage to the teeth. I am outraged, but I am afraid to stop taking it because my lungs actually hurt when I don't. I'm also on an Intal Inhaler, but I haven't heard any side effects of this. Here's the kicker, the doctor that prescribed me the Advair wasn't even a respiratory specialist, and refused to reccomend me to one! I'm so glad I found this site because everything everyone has listed seems to be what has gone wrong for me since I started taking it. If anyone has any information on how they're doing now that they've stopped taking it, or the "withdrawal" effects of Advair, please post them. I'm hoping to wean myself off. Good luck to all of you, and thank you. Now I can stop being so worried that I have blod clots, lung cancer, or an aneurism. ;)

Thanks so much,
Jade
NY,NY