charleyhorse, have you ever tried theophyllines?

They may sometimes be called "the poison of asthmatics," but they've been around for years and years, and despite needing regular monitoring of the drug levels in your blood (Because the therapeutic range is very narrow) they have many effects, mostly anti-inflammatory and some weak bronchodilating effects.

They aren't great for your body, but they're a lot better than prednisone.

Also, have you looked into trying one of the leukotriene blockers, like singulair or accolate? Some people have tried them when even steroids don't seem to work and end up feeling like a million bucks, but for some people they seem to have almost no effect at all.

Prednisone really doesn't look all that bad when you start to think that drugs that are a step-up from prednisone include intravenous solumedrol (through a surgically implanted, permanent port), or immunosuppressive drugs, like those used for chemotherapy and organ transplants.

Yes, theophylline's in the package too. I take Advair 500, extra Flovent for good measure, theophylline, Ventolin and/or Bricanyl ... and prednisone most of the time. I've had reflux surgery and nasal surgery which both helped but I still end up in hospital about 3 times a year on iv steroids ... yuck. I tried Accolate and Singulair but the specialist didn't think they were doing anything to improve my lung function so we dropped them. I've been reading about this anti IgE - its sounds promising for the allergy-induced problems anyway. Sure hoping.
thanks
Barb

[quote]Originally posted by charleyhorse:
Thanks for the advice. I haven't had a lot of success with antihistamines, but I will check into what you suggested. Tried allergy shots but got a nasty reaction so they discontinued them. Maybe I just haven't found the right antihistamine yet. (...) I think however, that if I could get the allergies tamed down, my lungs might not be so 'twitchy' and maybe the virus wouldn't react so drastically.


Yes, that's exactly what it is. The way your muscles in your airways work is exactly the same way any other muscle in your body works. The more often they are contracted and with more force, the more likely they are to build mass. Muscle mass with weight training is done through repetition -- you will increase the number of reps in a set before you increase the actual weight borne. In this manner, if you can keep your muscles in your airways from becoming constricted for whatever reason, they will eventually start to shrink and give you a greater airway lumen to work with.

Look into increasing the dose of your long-acting bronchodilator (like, look into switching away from advair and going towards serevent/flovent while taking serevent at higher doses) to keep your muscles in check.

There's tons of different antihistamines out there -- and lots of them are available by prescription. They all can cause drowsiness, and you should be careful which ones you pick -- as lots of drugs can interact with theophyllines to increase or decrease blood serum levels.

There's also different allergy shots -- some of them act in different fashions. It is possible you had a reaction to the preservatives inside the allergy shot and switching to a different brand manufacturer (if possible) could help.

Accolate and Singulair work best for people with allergic-type asthma. It might not make a noticeable change in lung function when you're not having any episodes, but it can make episodes shorter, less traumatic, less acute.

Look into going back on one of them, since it doesn't sound like they did anything to HURT you, more just that they weren't doing any GOOD.