Stopping Advair

[KJB]

My allergist told me to stop Advair and to take FloVent instead.  Should I be tapering down or can I simply switch over to FloVent without tapering Advair first?  Thank you.

[serendipitynyc]

You should really have asked your doctor about that when she told you to switch, because she knows better than anyone your circumstances.

I see my alergist/ immunologist every week, but am treated by physicians assistants 80% of the time.  So, every time I am prescribed something new (I have 5 allergy/asthma medications) I run back through the list of what I'm already taking and when, and ask where I should fit this one in; morning, night or otherwise.  I do this both for my own clarification, and just in case someone forgot to look at the chart to see what I'm already taking.

[caregiver222]

There is a lot of advice about the problems of tapering down on steroids, but you should be able to switch over without any special "tapeing program". The doses inhaled by these meds are very low. The tapering down advice generally applies to high doses of ingested steroids, and even then there is room for argument. You shouldn't have any kind of a life-threatening problem.