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Coming off steroids
One of the hardest things I find about taking a steroid course for asthma is coming off them afterwards.
The side effect I generally notice is muscle weakness (though this may also be due to the fact that I've been ill).
The catch is, that it's hard to tell shortness of breath caused from asthma apart from shortness of breath caused by the lungs being weak after illness and steroids. Thus, this tends to be a time when I'm never far from my peak flow meter.
I went swimming this morning (imperative after being ill as I need to build up the lungs again asap). I'm now pretty breathless, but my peak flow meter tells me that my lung function is actually only 30 points below max (ie. Well within what I'd expect on a normal healthy day). The feeling of being out of breath is actually a result of my body not having had a decent work out in over a week. The lungs are tired after exercise, rather than actually asthmatic.
Without the peak flow meter, I would have assumed it was asthma and taken more medication. (yesterday, the same sensation WAS asthma and I did use the inhalers).
I'm planning on cutting the steroids by 10mg a day (took it down by that much this morning), seeing how much salmeterol I need to maintain lung function, and using that as a guide to see if I can keep stepping the steroids down.
And I'll need to get some form of active exercise every day for at least the next week.
The side effect I generally notice is muscle weakness (though this may also be due to the fact that I've been ill).
The catch is, that it's hard to tell shortness of breath caused from asthma apart from shortness of breath caused by the lungs being weak after illness and steroids. Thus, this tends to be a time when I'm never far from my peak flow meter.
I went swimming this morning (imperative after being ill as I need to build up the lungs again asap). I'm now pretty breathless, but my peak flow meter tells me that my lung function is actually only 30 points below max (ie. Well within what I'd expect on a normal healthy day). The feeling of being out of breath is actually a result of my body not having had a decent work out in over a week. The lungs are tired after exercise, rather than actually asthmatic.
Without the peak flow meter, I would have assumed it was asthma and taken more medication. (yesterday, the same sensation WAS asthma and I did use the inhalers).
I'm planning on cutting the steroids by 10mg a day (took it down by that much this morning), seeing how much salmeterol I need to maintain lung function, and using that as a guide to see if I can keep stepping the steroids down.
And I'll need to get some form of active exercise every day for at least the next week.