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Possible Steroid-induced Cushings?
I am 36 and diagnosed with asthma in 1999. Since then, I have used Flovent 4 times daily and my weight increased rapidly; I have gone up 8 sizes and I exercise daily. Two or three years ago, I started experiencing edema in my feet and I soon developed an underactive thyroid. I experienced bipolar-like mood swings and the edema increased. I went to three different endos who were not very helpful. The edema spread to my hands, face and neck and I took myself off Flovent two summers ago and vomited several times from withdrawal and had a major stomachache. I had two asthma attacks that summer and was put back on Flovent. To make a long story short, my entire body is now swollen and it kills me to stand on my feet----I'm on my feet 8 hours a day at my job. I can barely stand the pain and can hardly walk when it's time to go home. I'm thinking this is hell on earth.....can't get worse than this!
I was admitted into the hospital this May for possible heart failure but after doing all their tests, doctors couldn't find the answers to my problems. I then went to a vascular doctor who was just as clueless as to what was going on with me. He thought I had a rare disease that my family doctor couldn't identify and he made an appointment for me to see my regular doctor the next day.
Last week I returned to my family doctor for another visit and I told her I thought the Flovent was doing this to me and she reluctantly agreed Flovent was causing problems for me. She told me to skip every other day and taper back the dosage but she also told me I could not stop taking it completely because of my asthma. I am really anxious to be free of Flovent once and for all and looking into alternative asthma medicine.
This discussion is related to Having multiple problems at once, all connected maybe?.
I was admitted into the hospital this May for possible heart failure but after doing all their tests, doctors couldn't find the answers to my problems. I then went to a vascular doctor who was just as clueless as to what was going on with me. He thought I had a rare disease that my family doctor couldn't identify and he made an appointment for me to see my regular doctor the next day.
Last week I returned to my family doctor for another visit and I told her I thought the Flovent was doing this to me and she reluctantly agreed Flovent was causing problems for me. She told me to skip every other day and taper back the dosage but she also told me I could not stop taking it completely because of my asthma. I am really anxious to be free of Flovent once and for all and looking into alternative asthma medicine.
This discussion is related to Having multiple problems at once, all connected maybe?.
Hi, this is Kristina. I just received my saliva cortisol results today from the lab.....not good. Low in the morning and high at night. Not sure what that means, exactly. Thanks.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Asthma can be treated with a combination of bronchodilators and steroids and at times can be well managed without steroids once the acute phase is off. You need to consult a good asthma specialist for this. Other than that you need to get adrenal gland function assessed. Generalized body swelling can also be due to severe anemia, a failing heart, serious kidney disease, liver failure, electrolyte imbalance, polycystic ovary, or low protein in the blood.
Do discuss this with your PCP and get yourself examined and tests done accordingly.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Asthma can be treated with a combination of bronchodilators and steroids and at times can be well managed without steroids once the acute phase is off. You need to consult a good asthma specialist for this. Other than that you need to get adrenal gland function assessed. Generalized body swelling can also be due to severe anemia, a failing heart, serious kidney disease, liver failure, electrolyte imbalance, polycystic ovary, or low protein in the blood.
Do discuss this with your PCP and get yourself examined and tests done accordingly.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!
I am NO doctor, simply a fellow asthma sufferer - but I definitely think the Flovent IS causing Cushing's. You actually are on DOUBLE the recommended dose of the Flovent - normally is it only used twice a day.
It's very important, both because of the high dose you've been on and the amount of time you've been on it, that you taper your dose of the Flovent slowly and do not stop it abruptly. Doing so could cause many major problems. So please follow your doctor's tapering instructions carefully and if you start experiencing serious "side effects" from the lower dose (weakness, muscle/joint pain, nausea/vomiting, worsening of asthma symptoms), please contact your doctor immediately - she may want you to either stay at whatever dose you are on at that time for a while or perhaps increase your dose slightly for a while before resuming the tapering schedule.
Steroids, whether oral or inhaled, are a great medication for asthma (and other illnesses/diseases), but they also can have horrible side effects. I once was on VERY high doses of oral prednisone (120 mg a day) for over a year and started having MAJOR, MAJOR side effects from it. Because my dose was so high and I had been on that dose for so long, when my doctor started the tapering process, when we got to a certain point and I began having problems, he actually put me in the hospital for a while to continue the taper so that I was in a very safe environment in case I had problems.
Best of luck to you with the tapering and the asthma
It's very important, both because of the high dose you've been on and the amount of time you've been on it, that you taper your dose of the Flovent slowly and do not stop it abruptly. Doing so could cause many major problems. So please follow your doctor's tapering instructions carefully and if you start experiencing serious "side effects" from the lower dose (weakness, muscle/joint pain, nausea/vomiting, worsening of asthma symptoms), please contact your doctor immediately - she may want you to either stay at whatever dose you are on at that time for a while or perhaps increase your dose slightly for a while before resuming the tapering schedule.
Steroids, whether oral or inhaled, are a great medication for asthma (and other illnesses/diseases), but they also can have horrible side effects. I once was on VERY high doses of oral prednisone (120 mg a day) for over a year and started having MAJOR, MAJOR side effects from it. Because my dose was so high and I had been on that dose for so long, when my doctor started the tapering process, when we got to a certain point and I began having problems, he actually put me in the hospital for a while to continue the taper so that I was in a very safe environment in case I had problems.
Best of luck to you with the tapering and the asthma
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