Yes, I use whatever generic comes in the diskus, which is not my favorite inhaler system ever.
I’ve gone through several things and honestly, the only thing that works great is warm weather.
I grew up with two smokers, and smoked myself for a few years in college and I suppose that’s the root of the problem.
I used to get bronchitis pretty much every winter and thought it was just normal to cough all winter. That at least stopped once I wasn’t exposed to smoke regularly.
I am confused because I have never heard of a generic coming in a discus! AKAIK the only generic for asthma is Albuterol, which is a rescue med. The inhaled steroid that you take every day are always name brand and seem to cost like $70/month. But maybe there are gaps in my knowledge.
What BJ said. I managed on a rescue inhaler for a while but my doctor said that if I’m using it every day I should switch to a steroid inhaler. It helped so much!
It is a generic for Advair. It used to come in a regular inhaler and they changed companies and now it’s in the diskus. Which is a lot more annoying to me to use than the regular inhaler and the counter is on the wrong side so I’m always surprised when it’s empty. But it’s $15/month with my insurance so there we are.
What I really liked was Symbicort which my last insurance stopped covering an this insurance doesn’t cover either.
Oh so the thing that really helped me was NAET, but I know that it’s not for everyone (it is really weird, but it works). I started in Jan 2019 and saw my naturopath 3x/week, and by that winter I had cleared all the mold allergens and cigarette smoke and gas fumes. For the first time ever I did not have a wracking cough all winter, and I could walk by a person smoking and just be like “gross” and not immediately have an asthma attack. I have not coughed all winter since then. I can’t even imagine how it would have been during the pandemic if I was coughing like that, people would have treated me like I had the plague.
I’m still allergic to some stuff that I can’t entirely pin down and the inhalers are very helpful for that, but the NAET is what made it manageable and I consider my naturopath to have saved my quality of life. I really recommend it to anyone who is open to it.
This is a semi recent change in medicine as well- as of 2019, stand alone albuterol is not recommended for anyone. Long term it can cause damage without a steroid accompanying it. So combo meds, or a daily steroid plus the rescue, are the recommendations now as far as I understand it from MedScape. (Obligatory, I am not a doctor, I do not treat asthma, just a nurse who tries to stay on top of best practice reccs).
Interesting! I get this absolutely terrible cough a couple times a year and was finally diagnosed with asthma recently. The pulmonologist prescribed an Albuterol rescue inhaler only. Maybe I should challenge him on that a bit.
Yeah, maybe I have a hole in my knowledge and it’s more controversial than as being presented, but it could be worth asking the rationale if nothing else.
My PCP said that if I’m using the rescue inhaler daily, then I should use a steroid inhaler. If it’s just a few times a week it’s not necessary. So I think the first step is to see if the rescue inhaler is enough to manage your symptoms as a sporadic thing, or if it becomes a daily necessity.
Cough is of course much improved today. The trick is always to make an appointment with your PCP and then whatever it is will magically go away
I was told twice a week is the cutoff for the steroids. Obviously different docs are using different guidelines!
My/our current diagnoses are reactive airway not asthma, but our family’s treatment plan is to be on steroids (budesonide?) from October to Spring providing we have a solid 2 weeks where the whole family is free of respiratory symptoms. We are very imperfect on the steroid puffers when we are healthy, but hopefully enough it works. I may ask my doctor about some of the above protocols too.
Oh gosh that’s not much at all!!
… does anyone have advice for cleaning poop out of a robot vacuum? 
Yuck! The one I had could be taken almost completely apart to wash the brushes. It just needed a screw driver. 
oh no
I think you have to light it on fire
That may make things even worse, but you might be right
Has anyone made tallow soap or beauty products? I have an abundance of tallow and would like to use it for something other than just a cooking fat.
If you have, do you have YouTube channels, websites, books, or any other resources you liked to get started??
I’ve been trying not to doomscroll as much which means I am confused.
Can someone point me to what is the situation currently w the USA government shutdown and things?
