Change of COPD medication.

Thank you so much for your reply, yes, Trelegy does seem to leave me very tired indeed, maybe I will ask to go onto Trinbow as I have a friend who has been put on that recently and she seems fine on it.

HI Phillip,

I have only just started using Spiriva so not heard of this other inhaler. I worry about taking Spiriva as worry about side effects but if you say that since changing to this different inhaler you have felt worse then did spiriva work well for you. I am taking just half the dose at the moment to see if i tolerate it but i no i should really be taking the full 2 doses. I have had very bad reactions to so many medications that i have become terrified of taking anything now. I hope that you feel better soon.

Phillip,

If you start taking a med. and have a problem, can you call your Dr. and tell him/her? I can and have done so in the past. I reach the Nurse or the Dr's assistant. They have even called me back with a message from my Dr.

My point is to not be afraid to seek help if your current meds. are a problem. Dr's understand this and usually want to their patients to do better. Tell them if you are experiencing unwanted side effects.

Best of Luck,

Larry

Thanks Larry,

Im am seeing the Dr in 2 weeks to see how i'm getting on with Spiriva Respimat so will see how i go until then. I should really be taking the correct dose 2 puffs a day but im only taking half. I will increase this in next day or two if i feel my body is tolerating the inhaler. At least its better to be taking some of it than nothing at all.

Actually, Mandy, we do not know that in your case it's better to be taking the Spiriva in a non-prescribed manner. Doctors consider this to be an abuse of the medicine & the system. When you get a respiratory infection, will you just take half the antibiotics?

Personally aitarg i think you are being very rude and unkind. You do not no anything about my past medical history so do not have a right to criticise me and my fear of medication. I definitely do not waste my Doctors time as she knows and understands my situation. Until you have walked in my shoes don't judge me. People like you who do not understand other peoples problems and concerns have no respect from others in my opinion. I am on this site for help and advice and not to be made to feel like im not worth my Doctors time. Get a life and stop judging until you know all the facts. As a very insecure person you have made me feel worse so thanks for that.

Mandy, i find people who come on here and jerk us around with the same exact hysterics every couple of months to be quite worse than rude. It would be different if you had gone ahead and used the Spiriva as prescribed & come back to report how that worked out. Instead, you come back 2 months later, still worrying in the exact same way about something that has not happened, meanwhile setting yourself up mentally for a massive reaction (because you've talked & written so much about it - c.f. self- fulfilling prophecy) and/or an ulcer and every other worry-related illness out there, if you have anxiety, you might want to seek treatment. Doesn't necessarily require meds: yoga, acupuncture, western meditation, prayer, regular exercise, etc., can all help.

Clearly you did not read what i said in my replies: i have a long list of extreme reactions to prescription meds and was finally given a diagnosis for why my body reacts so oddly. A number of those reactions have taken me to emergency rooms. Believe that if i had the money, i'd go a different route. I'm in the States & my coverage does not cover anything but western medical practices. I have a way to get a few acupuncture treatments/year but that's it. I know chapter and verse about terrible adverse and paradoxical reactions to meds. I also know that because i try new meds -- sometimes in the pharmacy or doc's ofc in case there's a reaction -- & talk to my docs about the results, medicine has come up with other meds, and it has come up with some workarounds. The workarounds are performed by allergists either in a hospital or in offices in a hospital bldg & people like you and me have to spend hours there in order to see what happens with the workaround. They do it this way so that you can be taken straight to emergency for a bad reaction.

I'm in my 7th decade and i have walked thousands of miles in the adverse reaction shoes, Mandy. I learned a lot along the way, including that for me it is best to have a superb pharmacist who knows all my issues, and to never read or ask about possible reactions before taking a med. I do that for 3 reasons: i know my body well enough to sense a bad reaction, i keep a double epi-oen nearby at all times, and i can look every doc in the eye & honestly state that i could not possibly have given myself a psychosomatic reaction by reading about possible reactions before trying the med.

I also learned that i should not whinge endlessly in advance of something that might not happen-- everyone on earth is dealing with too many extant problems to be taking up their time repeatedly with, "oh gosh, i might die IF this future possibility ever comes to pass." That statement is true for all of us at every moment of our lives. We all get to stoke that fire occasionally, but not all the time and not with the same folks every time. [There are support groups & forums for anxiety and medical anxiety] There are dying people in this forum & people whose family members are dying. You came here before & asked about this, and now you do it again. I'm not enabling that kind of behavior.

I totally agree with everything you have said and i sincerely apologise for my previous comment . I took it the wrong way and was way out of line. I respect your comments and i do take good advice from what you say. I am getting help with my anxiety now thanks so hopefully things will improve soon.

I have also started to take the Spiriva Respimat correctly. 2 puffs in the morning. I agree that reading about side effects is the wrong way of doing things and i know if my body is reacting to it or not. It is early days but hopefully things will get better week by week. I hope that you can accept my sincere apology.

Mandy

Of course i accept, Mandy. And the only reason i don't read that stuff is because i've been accused of the psychosomatic stuff. I use a small pharmacy where they know me & know that i don't read all the paperwork. If they have a concern, they tell me.

So maybe this will give you a chuckle: my pulmonologist ordered me to read up on Daliresp yesterday. My bronchiectasis isn't going well, i can't take azithro., can't do more than 3-day bursts of oral steroids, and he wants me to consider a hideously expensive, fairly new (to US) drug. May never get to the point of checking whether my ins will cover it because, hello!, acute renal failure??? I don't think i'm willing to risk that, lol.

Its great that you have a very good Pharmacy who understands you. I must admit i find i get more help from my pharmacy than i do with the Dr as in my medical practice you never get to see the same Dr its always someone new and they have no idea of your medical history. I think this is part of the reason i don't feel happy taking medication as they just listen quickly then suggest pills without going through my medical notes.

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time with your Bronchiectasis and hope that you get the right medication. This is where we are lucky in the UK having our nhs service but even that has sometimes come down to a postcode lottery for certain medications. I have looked into private medical insurance and cannot believe how expensive it is so i honestly don't know how you do it.

Anyway i really hope that you start to feel better soon and you get your medication sorted as that's why you have your insurance. Good luck with everything.