Asthma, Steroids, and Insomnia

[Joules]

So I ended up in urgent care yesterday with the asthma.  I'm already on a steroid inhaler (with moderate side effects) and was using levalbuterol in the nebulizer (since the straight albuterol causes so many side effects). I got a breathing treatment with albuterol and a steroid shot.  I've come home with oral steroids and real albuterol, and I really need to get on top of this.

 

The problem is the insomnia the meds cause.  I do not sleep when I take steroids, so I'm looking at 6 more nights with no sleep, even without the shakes and tremors I get from the albuterol.  All of my autoimmune conditions flare if I miss any sleep.   Obviously the docs are insistently that breathing is more important.

 

Does anyone else have this problem?  What do you do?  Is there anything I can ask the doc for on Monday that would help me sleep and wouldn't interfere with the treatment?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Joules]

And since others have dealt with more severe asthma with mine, is this as bad as it sounds?...He was concerned about pneumonia, but I was getting no air in my lower lungs, so he couldn't hear anything.  That's why I got the treatment there and had to wait for it to take effect, so he could hear.  He cleared me for pneumonia once he could hear but said I just had bronchitis.  He made it sound like it was really serious that it was so bad he heard nothing...Is this normal for severe asthma?  

Edited September 11, 2016 by Joules

[Tiramisu]

I'd ask your doctor about taking Benedryl, if you think that could help you sleep.

 

When I was once on steroids--not for a breathing issue-- my doctor told me to take Benedryl. A friend's DD did the same thing when they were desperate and told me it helped.

[Spryte]

Do you have a regular doc, who knows you, that you can follow up with?  If so, I think they could probably find a sleep med that might be appropriate for you, short-term, to get you through the steroids.

 

Oh!   How about the doc that follows you for the auto-immune conditions?  S/he would be familiar with how sleep impacts you.

 

I'm not you, but for me - trazadone worked for sleep.  Even while on meds that were keeping me up.  But, that was a longer term solution, and after trying several different sleep meds, I'm not sure it's one they'd try first.  There might be other options.

 

Have you tried melatonin?

 

FWIW, DS has severe asthma and insomnia.  He takes 2 preventative inhalers daily (inhaled steroids), and over the summer he was very, very ill.  He needed breathing treatments every 4 hours (even at night), oral steroids, and still had trouble breathing.  All that to say, I've heard a lot of docs talk about his asthma.  However, I've never heard them say he's getting *no* air into a section of his lungs.  I would be very concerned about that, and in fact - I am.  About you.  :(  Please do whatever the doc told you to do.  And feel better soon.  

[wapiti]

Can you not do the steroid inhaler during the oral steroids?  Which steroid inhaler is it?

 

My ds gets insomnia from the likes of Advair (awful!), Symbicort, and the other LABA, forgot what it's called.  It also impacted his growth.  We ended up backing him down to Flovent and now we're trying allergy shots.  We ended up having to switch allergists to do this, sigh but so far so good on the flovent.  It was really a shame because the LABA inhalers really worked for the asthma.  I know we've not done things like flovent while on oral steroids, but the LABAs can be so effective for breathing I don't know whether that might be the case.

 

So sorry I have no other ideas.  I'd probably try the benadryl idea.  I totally get the autoimmune/sleep issue as a different one of my kids has that (immune issue makes it hard to sleep but lack of sleep = bad for immune system even in the absence of infection, vicious cycle; he is helped by antibiotics and melatonin).  If you are interested, there may be herbal options (e.g. ashwaghanda) though I wouldn't know about interactions with the steroids and such.

Edited September 11, 2016 by wapiti

[Suzanne115]

I have pretty bad asthma.  I have always been told no sleeping medications whatsoever. I totally understand about the steroid insomnia.  It can be pretty miserable.  I hope you feel better soon.

 

Suzanne