Asthma care at the NHS

Since I have been seeing specialist for the last 15 years , not much has changed .It took my mum and hubby ringing up the hospital every day to get me in to see the specialist . Apparently people who had lung cancer through smoking were given priority as they got more funding .This is wrong , all patients should be treated the same regardless . I was put on steroids permentatly putting weight on leading to further health problems .That was basically it for over 10 years when I was referred to Southampton who have been brilliant and I am awaiting news from them on some other treatment to try and get my reliance on steroids reduced .You have to learn to stand up for yourself and not be fobbed off like I did .If I had said something earlier I may not  have developed diabetes , had major digestive problems or have the onset of oesteoporios , as these are all a direct result of being on predisinole steroids for all those years 

I was diagnosed with asthma when I was in high school along with my middle sister. We were given an inhaler that was too powerful for us to use at first as the inhaler would make us even more breathless, so our mum took us back to the doctors and explained to the doctor that the inhalers we were using were too much for us, so our doctor put us onto inhalers that actually work.

We were both originally given a brown preventer inhaler and a blue reliever inhaler, but I'm only on my reliever inhaler as I was taken off my brown preventer inhaler. 

My middle sister's asthma has cleared up, but I still have asthma.

I have had good asthma reviews since I was diagnosed with asthma.

I had an asthma attack once when I was in hospital for something completely unrelated to my asthma. I had used my inhaler, but it hadn't worked, so the guy I was dating at the time went to find a doctor a nurse to let them know.

Fortunately as the guy stepped into the corridor a nurse walked past, so he told her about my asthma and my inhaler not working, so the nurse came into the ward I was on to put me on oxygen until she could find the on duty ward doctor so that they could prescribe me a nebulizer as only doctors could prescribe them, but the doctor discovered that the oxygen line near my bed wasn't working, so she had to go and get a portable oxygen tank whilst she went to find a couple of porters to move my bed to another part of the ward so that I could be put on the built-in oxygen.

Thankfully between the oxygen and nebulizer my breathing returned to normal.

I was in and out of hospital as a child in the late 50s early 60s and my mum was told it was childhood asthma and I would grow out of it. 60 years on and after 15 years on prednisone steroids I am finally feeling back in control. I was moved to Southampton hospital a few years ago and the specialist diagnosed me with COPD as well. He has got me off the steroids and is reducing my nebules. I have injections at Dorchester once a month and I feel so much better. 

@JazzyC Hello,

That's greta that you're feeling better and the injections are having an impact, this must be a relief for you.

Have other members tried these injections?