Advair HFA and flovent inhaler

Interesting reading. I have not had the sore throat. I have not had weight gain, but neither have i been able to lose weight. I haven't had joint pain, but a defintie sensitivity to it.

I've been taking advair for a year. The thing i noticed was a sensitivity to existing allergies. So for instance, i've always been allergic to mold but the symptoms have been minor and they have reduced over time. Now i have a constant pulmanary response where i cough up yellow phlegm. I've decided to go back to the flovent inhaler and see if this solves my problems. i don't know if it will but the symptoms started when i started using the advair. I've also suffered from fatigue and my pituitary gland is being overworked. Right now, my theory is that my body is being stressed trying to handle the overreactions to allergens in my environment.
As for joint pain, for me it seems to be a digestive thing, but that doesn't mean the advair is not contributing to a digestive problem, that is then causing my joints to hurt.

I've been sick for many years. One thing i've learned is if your doctor isn't listening to you, then you need to find one who will. In our culture we place drs in a place of high authority and we are taught not to question that authority. It's your body, your health and your life. It is the drs responsibility to know the products they recommend and to listen to their patients. It's the patient's responsibility to question when things don't feel right and to help figure out the solutions. Some times they tell me what is wrong; some times i tell them what is wrong.

Like most of you who have posted here, I too saw remarkable & remarkably quick improvement in my asthma (& even some allergy) symptoms. However, I'm also discovering that it is not worth the side effects!!! I would rather have the sneezing & wheezing than what I've been dealing with the last week or so!

And just to help put it in "context": I'm 31 years old & have had asthma & allergies since the age of 4. When I was younger it was really bad, I was often in the emergcency room 2 or 3 times a week, was prone to bronchitis & sinus infections, etc. When I was a teenager, I mostly outgrew it (though I've always had a rescue inhaler & some type of allergy medication, I just didn't have the severity/intensity of symptoms/attacks I did as a kid), but in my late 20's noticed that some of the symptoms seemed to be coming back, not too seriously, just "uncomfortably". I was using the Albuterol as my rescue inhaler with the Flovent inhaler & Allegra & was having good results, with minimal to no side effects, but when Claritin went over the counter, most insurance companies stopped covering the Allegra. I went in to my doctor's office almost 2 weeks ago to see about getting my treatment options updated... what I had in mind was perhaps getting upgraded to the higher dose of the Flovent inhaler & having the doctor right a letter so the insurance company would cover my Allegra, and was put on Flonase & Advair instead. Over the years I've taken Theophylline, Albuterol, Proventil (inhalers), Flovent, occassional rounds of Prednisone, allergy shots, Allegra, nebulizer treatments.. you name it.... and I can honestly say that as awful as some of that stuff made me feel (particularly the Prednisone & Theophylline), I can't EVER remember there being a time when I'd rather have the bad asthma, than the icky side effect!! This stuff is awful!!!!! I'd stopped taking the Flonase, but then realized 2 things: 1). it's the exact same ingrediant as the Flovent, which I'd had no problems with & 2). I was still taking the Advair & feeling crappier & crappier. It's the most god-awful stuff I think I've ever taken!

I've only been taking it since the evening of March 31st (it's now midday on April 12th) & here is the list of side-effects I've noticed, and that seem to be getting worse instead of better:

nausea (pretty bad too, have had days where all I can eat is saltines & gingerale!)
dizziness (have actually fallen twice! This from someone who dances, rides horses, does yoga, etc!);
ringing in my ears (LOUD)
earaches & itchy ears
headaches
joint/muscle stiffness, swelling & tenderness (feels like I've got arthritis or something & my back & neck muscles just ache all the time!)
sinus pressure/tenderness & blood when I blow my nose (just short of full-on nosebleeds)
depression/lethargy/extreme fatigue (again, I'm someone who usually enjoys things like walks, puttering around the house & garden, riding horses, doing yoga, going dancing... & all I've wanted to do is either sleep or lay around... yesterday folding a load of laundry made me soooo tired I wanted to cry!)
emotional changes (irritability, weepiness, etc.)
sleep disturbances/insomnia (not getting restful sleep, feeling to wound up to sleep, nightmares like I haven't had since I was a kid, etc.)
vision changes (blurry, those weird silvery traces/flashes somebody else here mentioned)
itchy skin -- ALL OVER!!
dry skin
1st diahhrea, now constipation
frequent urination
weight gain -- which is strange considering I'm too nauseaus to eat anything most days
strange & constant taste in my mouth (very "chemically" & slightly metallic) -- nothing tastes right
heartburn/indigestion (which I've never had!!)
heart palpitations/tremors/restlessness/nervousness
inability to concentrate
memory problems/"fogginess"
scratchy/mild sore throat
tender roof of mouth (eating toast is difficult)

The list goes on & on.... and, I am really good about taking it exactly as prescribed (had even cut back & that's not helping) & being sure to rinse my mouth out with water (& gargle!) & so on.... what I find most strange is that many of the symptoms would seem as though they couldn't possibly coexist... that they would cancel each other out (e.g. having insomnia & sleep disturbances at the same time as extreme fatigue & constantly wanting to nap; intense hunger pangs & weight gain when I'm too nauseaus to even want to think about food, etc.)... but there they all are!!

What scares me is that aside from having allergies & asthma, I've always been a very active & healthy person.... and in the last week I've gone from feeling like a young healthy person with some uncomfortable asthma/allergy symptoms to feeling like a sick, decrepit, feeble & exhausted old person.... my 89 year old grandpa has fewer physical complaints & is in better shape at the moment!!!

If it wasn't for this website, who knows how long I've had let myself think it was due to something other than this god-awful medication... thanks!! I've taken my last dose of Advair!! I'm just going to have to explore some other options to treat my symptoms (I hadn't thought I was actually "bad" enough to need something like Advair in the 1st place), or get the insurance company to cover my Allegra!