[BeyondtheRainbow]

Does anyone else have the combination and get de-stabilized (not that I can really do that without having been stable in many months) from the meds? Normally I take singulair and carry a rescue inhaler and try to avoid using a steroid inhaler (and will do nearly anything to avoid oral steroids) and I'm ok although occasionally a bit wheezy. But allergy seasons come along and my asthma flares and I'm left trying to choose between breathing and my mood.

If you've come up with a solution to this issue I'd love to hear it. I am delaying using the steroids and breathing treatments but tomorrow or the next day I'll have to.

My family dr said something about trying Spiriva the next time (again) because of it not being steroidal. I was on it years ago when asthma entered my life (I got it as an adult because I caught whooping cough and it damaged my lungs) and I don't remember it doing much but right now I don't really want to use the steroids. But my family dr is out of town all week so I probably am going to be breaking out the Dulera (the steroids that I tolerate the best of the many I've tried) before he's around again.

I'd just love to know there is a trick I've yet to find.

[BipolaRNurse]

I wish I had some words of wisdom for you, but I have both conditions and oral steroids make me manic. All I can do is offer you my sympathies and hope that you can find a treatment that works for you.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Right now I'm really afraid because I just refuse oral steroids. I've refused them in the ER while gasping for air. But the inhaled ones cause problems too as do breathing treatments and right now I have been so unstable for so long that I am really afraid of what could happen if I have to use those inhaled steroids. Yet there's no much other choice unless I can make it a week until my dr is back and try spiriva again but I am not going to make it a week. I have just had the tiniest, barely there improvements in my depression and I am not willing to give that up except I think I'll have to, probably tomorrow because I'm pretty tight tonight after 2 doses of rescue inhaler this evening (and even that has me wide awake when I should be asleep after a big day and no nap).

The allergies snuck up on me this time. This is the price I pay for living in the country.

[neverending]

I use symbacort 2x a day as my regular inhaler and it has done wonders for me. Yes I learned too that the steroids cause me to go manic too and I wait as ling as I can before having to go on them. I also wait as long as I can before using my nebulizer because I don't like the way it makes me feel either. However the symbacort has greatly reduced my episodes. I very rarely use my emergency inhaler now either which is good because it didn't ever seem to work anyway.

[HeavyMetalLover]

I have COPD & use albuterol for rescue inhaler & Spiriva. I also use a nebulizer 3 x a day & cpap when I sleep (I have COPD /sleep apnea combo) . I do okay with this med/inhaler combo but I hear ya on the steroids making you manic. This combo doesn't make me manic but it's different for everybody. Hope you find the right combo soon!!! I'll keep you in my thoughts!

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Symbacort is really bad for me. Constant agitation for months when I was on it. I guess there is a new drug out that is something like symbacort combined with something like spiriva and I think my dr. wants me to try that. But since he's out of town it's got to be Dulera.

I got some reprieve today because it's rained and the allergens are down. Still wheezy but nothing like yesterday. So I get one more day I think. And the more days the AD has to work before starting the inhaler steroids the better although maybe it doesn't matter since I'll be going high with the steroids and am battling very low.

The pulmonologist I saw when things were bad said albuterol can be given divided up over an hour or so to reduce agitation. This doesn't work for me but maybe it would help someone else?

[Edgar's Mom]

Breathing trumps mood. I had a friend with asthma who moved to the country and she died of an asthma attack on the way to the hospital. I hope you find something tolerable to help you breathe :-/

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[BeyondtheRainbow]

I'm so sorry about your friend. That's horrible.

Breathing does trump mood. I'm just hoping that now that it is cool I can keep windows closed and allergens out and maybe control the asthma that way. Hopefully I'll succeed.

[Edgar's Mom]

I read somewhere that eating raw local honey can help some people with allergies... I don't know if there's any truth to it but it might be something to investigate.... Also a HEPA filter on your furnace.

I had horrible adult onset allergies that seemed to be seasonal but went away completely when I stopped eating dairy. I was so stuffed up all the time my ears were even plugged and I was dependent on Otrivin to sleep every night. I did a cleanse one year and noticed that my allergies cleared up on around the 10th day. I did months of testing, adding and taking away certain foods and it was dairy. Oddly, when I eat dairy I'm allergic to my environment (pollen, dust). Spring and fall were deadly. When I'm off dairy I have almost no problem with environmental allergies.

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[BeyondtheRainbow]

I have heard about the honey thing too. I'm not sure if it works or not. aI'll have to read more. I do use HEPA furnace filters and various things like anti-allergen pillow and mattress covers.

I've always had seasonal allergies but it was not a big deal until I had whooping cough 5 years ago which damaged my lungs so that now I have asthma which is not good with the bipolar. And then while I was so sick from the whooping cough I was working in an office with a serious black mold problem and that was making me more sick. And I wasn't in the office I was in people's homes or in a highly polluted air area and I developed chemical sensitivities. Usually I handle that pretty well with practice but when the seasonal allergies come it all snowballs and suddenly my asthma reacts to much more.

I have a cat with asthma too so he and I wheeze our way through spring and fall together .

[xxblackrosesxx]

I don't have asthma so I don't know what to suggest but I hope you'll get better