Does anyone have any idea what is going on with me? (Details.)

I think you should check with Doctor, about the use of the inhaler. Some inhaler can cause the jitters. Are you exceeding the number of puffs aday?

Are you eating and hydrating properly? I remember that you often ate nothing during the first part of the day.

Get a blood sugar meter and check it throughout the day. The ones that use the laser etched strips work best. A kit with like 10 or so included strips can be had for around ten bucks and should help you rule out or confirm hypoglycemia, I’m no doc but that’s what it sounds like.

@Tropical_Willie I think I’ll not use the inhalers tomorrow and see what happens. I’m not even sure why he prescribed them.

Quitting smoking is a shock to the nervous system at first. Did you say you used chantix? Are you still on it? You are using an inhaler, that can cause jitters.

Chantix was used for the first month. It’s been two months.

Good answers guys!

Found this:

Common side effects of VENTOLIN HFA include:

sore throat
upper respiratory tract infection, including viral infection
♣ cough
muscle pain
your heart feels like it is pounding or racing (palpitations)
chest pain
♠ fast heart rate
♣ shakiness
◘ nervousness
♫ dizziness

It would be SO COOL if it was the inhalers!

God this is a horrible feeling.

I think I’m over dosing. Bleh.

I understand the Ventolin HFA !
Verify with doctor the dosage. Three times a day with two puffs and a minute between has to be followed.

Is that your script?

Don’t STOP the inhaler cold turkey ! ! !

What time do you take your prednisone?

Which of these are new meds for you? I thought the inhalers were for your breathing problems. Not sure you want to stop those without checking with your doctor first.

If you stop the inhalers (I am not saying I think you should, I have no opinion) but if you stop, don’t do it when you are alone. Have another adult around during the day and make sure they know the experiment you are doing.

I think it could be the inhaler or even the prednisone if the specific symptoms started after you started the meds. Thing is both medications have dangers when you stop even if they were not the right thing to take in the first place. Prednisone can be deadly when stopped if your dose is not low enough. You have to wean down. I know more than one person who cannot take Prednisone. Usually, it feels like a miracle drug, but not for everyone.

Do the bad symptoms get very bad about two hours after taking the meds? And then maybe last for a few hours? I’d need to look up peak blood serum counts for each drug, but it is fairly common for two hours-ish to be peak. It might be faster with an inhaler. I’m just guessing.

Be very careful, you might want to consult with your doctor and ask him the best way to wean down. Cold turkey might be very bad.

Let us know what happens.

What’s the inhaler for?
I’d just stop all the rest and bump the appointment up a couple or weeks.
Re-address the meds. Or get a 2nd opinion.
You’re still a summer chicken!

I wouldn’t self-diagnose and would call the doctor’s office before doing anything. Talk to him on the phone.

I agree call the doctor, but if the doctor refuses to help you try coming off the medication then you will probably need to consult with a different doctor. You need to know the safest way to come off of those meds.

Are you taking the prednisone for just 5 or 10 days? Why are you taking it? For the breathing problem also?

I say you might need a different doctor, because when my girlfriend wanted to take her son off of asthma medication the doctor simply would not agree with her or help her. She finally did it herself, she was a nervous wreck. Her situation was she never believed he had asthma, she didn’t see improvement with the medication, and she believed the medication had stunted his growth. She wound up being right. However, they actually have equipment at home to monitor is breathing and heart rate at home, because he has had problems since birth. They would have been woken by alarms in the middle of the night if he had trouble while sleeping. They also spent time reading up on coming off of the medication. They did it with great caution.

Ventolin is a “rescue inhaler”. I have used it in the past and within 30 seconds I was shaking – and that was with only one hit! I hated the side effects. I’ve heard it referred to as the “Hot shot”. I hope you are not doing that many times per day.

Here’s an experiment. BEFORE you take it, sit down relax and measure your heart rate and record your beats per minute. Let’s say it is 72 bpm. Then inhale the Ventolin (Albuterol) and measure again in 2 minutes. I’ll bet it goes up to 100! No wonder you feel like that!

^^^Thats very useful information. Fast heart rate can trigger panic feelings, including trouble breathing.

Also albuterol, Ventolin, often has a rebound effect. 4 hours after you take it, you are often worse than when you started – so you need another hit. And another… .
(They should have told you that before you started using it. If they didn’t, please kick your doc in the groin for me.)

Let us know the experimental results. I’m betting your heart is beating at over 100 bpm 3 minutes after inhalation. I’ll wager a coffee on it. Do we have a bet?

Have your blood sugar checked to be safe…

It could any number of things, but I would have your blood sugar checked just in case…

Well, my doctor said to use the Ventolin 4 times a day, or whenever I need to. I don’t even know why he prescribed it.

I’m at the tail end of the prednisone. It was like 4 pills for 4 days, then 3 for 4 days, then 2 for 4 days. I just started the 1 for 4 days today.

I didn’t know the inhalers were also a form of steroids. No wonder I’m so hangry all the time! Can’t wait to be done with it ALL.

Just left a message for my doc, letting him know I’ve dropped the inhalers.

You guys, thank you for your advice and concern. I learned a lot of new stuff, mainly, “Just say no to drugs!”

@JLeslie I take the prednisone whenever I get up, so it varies between 9 – 11.

My doctor told me to take prednisone before 9:00 AM (because it is a stimulant) and only three days worth, for a very specific issue, however

Are you using 2 inhalers? Ventolin is light blue and is a “rescue inhalier”
You mentioned a steroid inhaler. Could it be something like Flovent HFA , 110 mcg or 220 mcg? That one comes in a salmon colored housing. Flovent won’t make your heart race and give you agita. The light blue Ventolin will. Flovent is not a rescue inhaler.

It’s Ventolin. Dr. said to use the Ventolin 4X day, and Symacort 1X per day.

“Symbicort.”

Oh, and also, I don’t feel the least stimulated. In fact, I’m so tired I’m pretty sure I could sleep all day.

Well, I can feel the psycho coming on (don’t know what else call it) and I haven’t used the Ventolin today. Has to be the damn steroids. I guess there is nothing for it except to ride it out until Saturday when I take my last dose.

Come on. Check your heart rate. If not for you, do it for me. :-)

Oh, one more side effect I can remember… One minute after taking a full dose of Ventolin everyone else in the world turned stupid. Everyone else immediately became incompetent, rude, ignorant….
Of course, I recognized this happened and did not tell everyone what I really thought about them. It was a strange side effect.

101

Going off prednisone can do odd things too. Makes you feel great when on it, tapering off not so much.

It made me feel horrible. Angry and irritated. I’ll be so glad for Sunday when I’ll be off the shit.

Are you sure the doctor said use it 4 times a day and not up to 4 times a day? Big difference and a mistake a patient or pharmacist could make it even the doctor could have written the wrong thing meaning to write the other thing.

I would say it’s probably safe to stop the prednisone single pill after 2 days, but since you say the inhaler is a steroid, I’m afraid you are risking a steroid crash anyway, which is dangerous.

I think you should talk to a doctor or pharmacist or call the inhaler company and ask for advice before going cold turkey and know the symptoms of steroid withdrawal.

I seriously hate that doctors prescribe so many steroids. I’ve complained concerning doctors prescribing them like candy with antibiotics for bacterial infections that involve a cough. They never used to do that back in the day, but in the last 15 years I see it all the time. It’s idiotic to me. But, that’s a slightly different topic. I’m all wound up from this Q thinking the doctor is an idiot. It scares me. I hope he’s not.

I know you have to taper off prednisone gradually so I would definitely follow the prescription unless I had talked to him. As far as the inhaler, my advice still stands – call him or her to discuss. It’s quite possible that you misunderstood the instructions. Only one of us here is a doctor and even he would not diagnose you over the internet.

He said 4 times a day.

Is Ventolin a steroid? I just thought some one above said it was. What about Cymbacort?

No, he really isn’t an idiot. Also, it was the ER doctor who prescribed the prednisone. My regular Dr. questioned why, and why so much. I’m like, “Hell, I don’t know!” My regular MD did tell me to use the Ventolin 4X.

Oh, I know better than to quit the Prednisone cold turkey. I’ll call tomorrow and see if I can quit 2 days early, tho.

@janbb I’m down to 1 a day for 4 days.

I’ll call them and let you know what they say.

I’m gonna ask Rarebear. Hey Rarebear…my doctor prescribed Ventoline for me and told me to take it 4 times a day. Does that sound right?

I don’t know if it’s a steroid, I thought someone knew above. I’m going to look it all up.

I’m glad your doctor isn’t an idiot. Makes me feel better.

Here is the actual package insert.

I’ve been wrong on everything, so my opinion is worth what you’re paying for it.

Sounds like medication side effects.

@osoraro Why would you say such a thing? We send you medical questions, because you are right about so many things. Your medical knowledge is invaluable to us jellies. You have the disadvantage of not being able to examine the patient online, which we all understand.

@JLeslie @osoraro is being somewhat sarcastic because he offers medical opinions – despite him repeatedly telling us he’d prefer not to be asked – and then gets questioned and criticized. I suggest we take his post as what he wanted to say on this subject and not push him on it.

Ok. I was just trying to say how much I value his opinion. Sorry if it came out wrong.

@JLeslie That comment was meant for Dutchess. It’s an inside joke.

LOL!

Actually, the question was, does taking a Ventolin hit 4X a day sound about right? (BTW, I do have a call in to my doc so I’ can ask him too.)

Also, I don’t mind being asked or sent medical questions. I just usually won’t answer them. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that generally it’s very bad practice.

The only reason I answer Dutch is that I’ve known her for several years and she knows where I come from on this.

@JLeslie I found this.

”. Therefore, the simple answer to the question above is that it is safe to use these inhalers 4–6 times per day.”

Yes, it was on the insert I linked. If I remember correctly it said you can try one dose instead of two. Didn’t you say you were told to do two 4 times a day? I’m pressed for time, I can’t scroll back right now.

We don’t know if the drug for sure is the problem, and if it is we don’t know if taking less will get rid of the problem or if you are just simply “allergic” to it at any dose.

One hit, 4 times a day.

I just quit using it.

I’m pretty sure the doc is going to give me the go-ahead to stop the prednisone 2 days early. Looking forward to next week when I’m drug free.

Hopefully, the dark cloud lifts after getting all of that out of your system. Let us know what happens.

Yay. Doc gave me the go-ahead to stop tomorrow. I will defiantly let you guys know. I’ll give in 2 or 3 days.

You guys have been wonderful. I see the doc again on Thursday. Something I don’t understand is why he thinks I have COPD. I never complained about shortness of breath or anything. I did tell him about a few episodes I have where I suddenly can’t breath, but it passes. I had two of them in the late 80’s, one in the 90’s another in 2007. They seem to have been increasing in frequency over the last several months though. (They are terrifying. That’s how I can be so specific about the dates.)

@Dutchess_III Maybe this is why he thought you may have COPD…..
”’ve been quit for 7 weeks. For the last 2 weeks I’m having a horrible time breathing sometimes. My chest is wheezing. My throat keeps wanting to spasm close making it hard to breath. It also wants to spasm when I try to swallow, and I feel like I’m going to choke. One of my doctors muttered something about COPD, but I don’t know if that was an official diagnosis.”

He diagnosed me with COPD about 3 months ago.
Since I started the prednisone and the inhalers two weeks ago, that’s when all that other shit started. So I’m saying, I didn’t have those symptoms at the time he diagnosed me with COPD..

I personally don’t accept that COPD diagnosis yet. I’m holding out that you will feel all better soon. But, you know me, I’m a reluctant and obstinate patient a lot of the time.

I am so ready to feel better. I felt healthier when I was smoking.

That sucks.