asthma problems

I am female aged 60. Was a smoker until 8 years ago. Gave it up after having flu and bronchitus (bronchitis). Diagnosed as asthmatic and probably borderline COPD. Use combivent and beclazone twice daily. Two puffs of each one each time. This is my maintenance dose and does me very well. Peak flow after inhalers between 450 and 500. I have lived a perfectly normal life until July of this year. Had a very heavy cold and my GP gave me antibiotics and prednisolone to keep my chest clear. He did not think my chest was too bad at that time. He also changed the beclazone to QVAR. Told me to use QVAR one puff daily. As I did not know this medication I did as I was told. However, it became very clear that it was not enough. I needed combivent during the day. My symptoms are that my chest gets very tight - no wheezing and no coughing. Saw my asthma nurse and increased the qvar to twicve a day. Also had flu jab. During the course of the next week my breathing got worse. Peak flow not above 400 and dropped to 250 early one morning. Saw nurse again and she gave me beclazone again. I do have problems with food intolerances i.e. dairy and bread make my breathing worse (migraines can happen with food colourings). Have improved - peak flow now back to between 450 and 500, but still need combivent around 6 hours after the first mornings puffs. This is something I have never done until now. Any thoughts?
Woodies170

[National Jewish Health]

It sounds like your lungs simply did not respond as well to Qvar™ Inhaler (beclomethasone dipropionate HFA) as they did to Beclazone® (beclomethasone dipropionate).  Now that you are back on it are better again.  The "heavy cold" and your being on an inhaled steroid that was not effective for you, surely set the control of your airways back and it may take a couple more months until your lungs are back to a well-controlled baseline.  You obviously know your food tolerances and so that should go well.

An alleged advantage of Qvar™ Inhaler (beclomethasone dipropionate HFA) is that its smaller particle size allows for greater penetration of the drug into the smaller airways.  At some point, if you have not completely recovered, you might ask your doctor to add a long-acting inhaled beta agonist, such as Serevent® Diskus® (salmeterol xinafoate inhalation powder) or Foradil® Aerolizer™ (formoterol fumarate inhalation powder), to your inhaled steroid.  Some physicians also prescribe Beclazone® (beclomethasone dipropionate) and Qvar™ Inhaler (beclomethasone dipropionate HFA) at the same time.

[Svet]

there is something you can do about the asthma. It had worked for other people I do not know if I can post my e-mailing address for you to contact me