New to the group!

[Guest guest]

Hi guys,

I am new to the group. So I would like to introduce myself. I have

had asthma all my life, well as long as i can remember. I have been

on every steroid that you can imagine and off it also lol! I am only

31. I take predizone, pulmicort, combinet, singulair, bextra. My

problem in the

last 5 years has been rib cage pains (chest tightness). The singulair

has controlled my wheezing and the combinet helps me with the short

of breath. I am not too sure if the pulmicort works, but it seems to.

My wife who is a pharmacist, says it is in " my mind " when I don't

take my medication and start to panic.

I started taking xolair late last october. My IGE level varied from

700 to 1300. So the doctor started me on the highest level every 2

weeks. At first it was great. As soon as I took my first injection, i

felt better in a few hours. I would feel better for the first week

and then at the end of the two weeks, I felt that as if I was gasping

for the next injection. I never really felt any major side affects

early on. Once in a while for a whole day I would feel naucious for

the whole day.

Then in december, i started to get serious headaches and backaches. I

did not know what it was. I went to the doctor and he tested my blood

pressure. It was 155/101. I felt as if i was going to explode inside.

He quickly put me on Atacand and i seem to feel better now. He told

me that my history should over the last year i used to occassionally

get high blood pressure but nothing serious. Then almost immediately,

I seemed to have developed it. Early on, I got extremely nervous and

scared and thought it was the Xolair. But he told me that he has not

heard of or knows of any side effects of Xolair. Does anyone else

feel this way?

I have been on Xolair now for almost 6 months. Whilst on Xolair, I

eliminated my predizone completly, i reduced my combinet to 1 puff a

day (from 2 puffs upto 4 times daily). I tried to eliminate the

singulair and pulmicort. But my wheezing came back alot.

Then I got nervous with the Xolair recently because of the high blood

pressure. My wife found out, that is a rare condition called

Pulminory Hypertension. Which basically means asthamatics who suffer

from high blood pressure. Here we go again lol! Nothing to do with

Xolair though.

Well, I spoke to my doctor and he suggested coming off the Xolair.

That was 4 weeks ago. Since then, the number of puffs i take from

combivent have gone up, and also the pulmicort. Last sunday I took

the prednizone again, which really got me depressed.

I am now considering of going back on the Xolair again. The blood

pressure has not changed.

I would really appreciate feeback from this group to see how they

feel, if they feel the same after taking Xolair?

Doug - I just want to say thank you for starting this group. I have

searched the net for a long time, and this is the only group I have

found.