Re: stopping or tapering off?

July 18, 2009

The first six months after the tapering I did have some incidents the fifth and

sixth weeks before getting my shot, and I told the doctor about this, but since

then, I have had no further problems. I may have to use my albuterol a little

more (like every day instead of maybe once or twice a week) but other than that,

I have not had an event bad enough to have to resort to Prenisone (which, by the

way, both my allergist and xolair doctor insist I always have with me as well as

an epi-pen which I need to renew). I am on advair 500/50 one puff once a day,

singulair, fexofenadine 60 mg once a day unless I have a lot of drainage, then I

boost it to three times a day (doesn't happen very often), Spiriva and that's

enough! Albuterol as needed or when I have a nasty cough, I use the nebulizer

for a few days and the cough goes away. These are rare and most of the time I

do not even call the doctor though I do have to relate them to the xolair doc

before

my shot.

My doc has said nothing about my not taking xolair...

From: Belsky <crdb@...>

Subject: [ ] stopping or tapering off?

Date: Friday, July 17, 2009, 9:09 PM

I found the comment about tapering from 150 mg every 4 wks to every 6 wks

interesting. About 6 months ago my allergist mentioned moving me off Xolair.

But I found that if I even was a few days beyond 4 weeks I would start to

have asthma symptoms. This summer though has been great. I have spent a

majority of the last 4 weeks outside camping with scouts and had very little

issues! I am still on 2 puffs of Advair but only 100/50 once a day. A big

drop from 2 puffs of 500/50 twice a day and 5-10 mg of prednisone daily a

couple of years ago.

I do have strong seasonal allergies. I only really get November through

February off here in Virginia. I am wondering though if anyone has tapered

to a longer time period between shots during their less allergic months? I

might suggest this to my allergist instead of stopping Xolair. I am not

willing to stop yet as it has made such a difference in my life.

On a side note, my youngest (almost 6 yrs old) is popping out in hives due

to his grass allergy even with Zyrtec and desensitizing shots. He also has

eczema flaring on the back of his legs. We added Atarax tonight to see if we

could get his system to calm down. Poor little guy. He was even saying if

this doesn't work then he needs some breathing treatments as he has been

coughing some - his form of asthma. At times like this I wish he could get

Xolair. He is such a trooper though.

B.

Recommended Posts