Asthma Community

Congrats, S!!! So happy for you. Praying that you continue to do well. Sonya

Woo hoo! Good news Sue. I hope you can just stay on the single steroid inhaler too.

I've been doing better and better since going off of Symbicort and down to Pulmicort last August. Very very little reflux and no asthma flares (in fact, no respiratory sickness at all). Of course, the allergy shots are now fully effective after 5 years, so I'm a happy camper. It's almost like I'm normal. LOL

Glad to hear you're doing so well -- keep up the good job! Judy

thanks Judy, it's been a long time coming, but your success really inspired me to keep pushing to get off the advair. I will be starting on Flovent as soon as this advair runs out. (I think Sat) Crossing my fingers that it will manage to keep me in control, and that maybe the reflux will improve. Although honestly I have been on Lupron for the past several months in order to try to shrink fibroids, and the reflux improved greatly while I wasn't having periods. Unfortunately they are back, along with the reflux, so hopefully this will help! thanks for giving me the idea to push for this!

Sue, not to thread-jack, but I read a couple of your posts on the women's health board re: fibroids. Now this comment makes me intrigued about something fibroid-related going on with me. It's interesting that your reflux disappeared while on the Lupron. . . do you think that the extra space that the fibroids occupied in your abd cavity created upward pressure on your stomach, causing the reflux? Or has a physician explained it to you? Judy

P.S. I drank REAL caffeinated coffee last week for the first time in several years!!! Oh, that was heavenly. Flavored coffee brewed at home still gives me reflux but at least I know I can go to my favorite Starbucks and have a mocha any time! And I'm going to experiment with non-flavored coffee at home.

Coughy

So glad to hear that, I hope you stay controlled on the flovent, thanks for the vote of confidence
Bre

Thank you so much Sonya!!! I start the flovent tonight, took my last advair this morning. Here's hoping that it will work!

Thank you, and hang in there!

Wow, great on the coffee!!! I have given in to drinking starbucks decaf which is great. I don't know if you have any Caribou Coffees where you are, but if you do, and you like mocha, try their dark chocolate mocha..........amazing!!

Re the fibroids, first I started noticing that the reflux was always much much worse right before & during my periods. I have some fairly good sized ones, about 8 cm I think. When i noticed this I wondered if it wasn't exactly what you said about the pressure. On another fibroid board, a number of people commented that when they had surgery to remove the fibroids or shrink them, their reflux went completely away. My obgyn keeps insisting they are not related. But then when I went back on the lupron, it all but disappeared, unless I was really bad. I could even eat tomato sauce (a prime offender for me) with little if any problems. Now I am off & it is back. I talked to my primary about it a few weeks ago, and he is wondering if maybe it doesn't have something to do with hormones. My problem is getting anyone to take the fibroid issue seriously. I had no clue I had them but I was having more & more problems around my period, and started noticing that I was feeling crappy about half of the time. My previous gyn ordered the ultrasound & they were discovered. Because of my age, they keep telling me that they will go away soon. But no women in my family have reached menopause before 58. They keep insisting that something else must be wrong for me to be still menstruating, and want to do all kinds of other tests which I think are unnecessary, as nothing else has shown up and this is completely normal in my family. My mother, older sister, older cousins etc all attest. The first round of Lupron did not shrink the fibroids, they actually got bigger (I guess you can rebound or something when going off) I don't think they improved at all this time either. They are making my stomach stick out & I feel so lousy the week before & week of my period. I have a follow up with the gyn next month, I am seriously thinking of taking some kind of action, maybe the one where they cut off the blood flow to the uterus (forgot the name). My first gyn gave me the choice of doing nothing or having a hysterectomy, which I think is unnecessary, but I'm not sure the doing nothing is the right solution either. I will see what this gyn says next month. Are your fibroids giving you problems? Have you tried anything yet?

Yeah, I do have problems that are getting worse. Had hysteroscopy/fibroid surgery in Jan 2011 and then related anemia throughout 2011 which my primary care doc forgot to remind me of when she saw me in June 2011 so it wasn't treated until Feb 2012 when I had another physical. (dang it) The anemia wasn't that bad but it would've been nice to not be so tired, weak and short of breath that whole year. My biking really sucked.

Fast forward to now. Anemia is all better due to daily iron supplementation, but my uterus is about twice the normal size so my stomach sticks out. And I have bladder/bowel problems, a little bit of reflux sometimes and noticeable SOB when I ride a bike, which is not due to being out of shape. My theory is that since my uterus takes up so much room in my abdomen it is compressing other organs, including my lungs, and causing problems. For the past two months I've also had horrible pain with my period, and I'm very tolerant of pain so when I say that you know it's bad. LOL Had to take Vicodin on a couple of nights to get any rest. That troubles me.

When I saw the OBGYN last week he was really excited about doing a robotic hysterectomy; he was like a little boy with a new toy excited to play with it. I said no way. I mean, it's prime biking season and I'd be out of commission for a couple of weeks, not to mention surgical risks and potential complications. I don't think so!

The options I was presented with were: (1) observation (waiting for them to go away on their own); (2) uterine artery embolization; (3) robotic hysterectomy; and (4) myomectomy (cutting them out). Lupron was not presented as an option to me because when you stop taking it, the fibroids come back, as you found.

I have read some of the research on UAE and it looks pretty good. The only unpositive things I've found is that (a) if you have a bigger uterus (22-24 weeks) the results won't be as good, and (b) the fibroids might come back anyway, in different places.

I have an appt with an interventional radiologist next Wed & I'll let you know more after I talk to him, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for the UAE. Judy

I was annoyed also by the first dr so eager to do the hysterectomy. Someone said that that is what gyns do, so they always favor it over anything else. They don't do uae's, and myomectomies are more difficult than just taking out everything. To her credit, the new gyn did suggest the uae as an option, but I opted to try the lupron first as she said that the other dr didn't give me enough. My cramps have been so strong that 800 mg of ibuprofen didn't even make a noticeable difference, and I too have a pretty good tolerance for pain (get almost all cavities filled with no novacaine, have never taken any pain meds were prescribed for dental work, etc. There is also something having to do with mri & shooting them with sound waves or something. It seems to be pretty new, but there is a place in western mi that does it. I thought about that, but it seems pretty untested. If I can find a private way on here to send you my email, I will do that, and if you would let me know what you think after your meeting with the i.r., that would be great. Thanks for the info!

I'll do that, sure. In the meantime, I found a really great website that explains all kinds of things about this procedure:

www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg ufe

The site is sponsored by two radiology organizations so I think we can trust that it's accurate information. There's also a video so you can listen to a radiologist explain it.

And there's another article on the broader procedure, catherer embolization, that you may want to view as well.

More info soon. Judy

Thanks Judy, I'll take a look! Good luck at your appt.

Sue, I'll post an update from today's appointment on the thread on the women's health board. Judy