Sorry to harp on about inhalers all the time, but I found some useful info online this week that I wanted to share.
This article is about a child who used the same inhaler as me (seretide/advair) and ended up with a steroid-induced rash around his mouth. When he stopped the inhaler, the rash went away. At the bottom of the article there are about 8 different Pubmed articles by experts on the subject, although it is also just as easy to Google "inhalers and perioral dermatitis". Perioral dermatitis is a type of rash around the mouth commonly caused by steroid medication.
Suffice to say that this article worried me, particularly as it involved my inhaler and also because the worst area of my skin at the moment is the are surrounding the mouth. Coincidence? I have no idea.
Anyway, after a month of dropping every third puff, I have now lowered the dose to every other puff. I also make the point of rinsing my mouth thoroughly after a puff to remove all steroid traces from my mouth and throat. I seem to be doing OK, but I'm still taking it really slowly. After about a month of this, I will see where I go from there. I would sincerely love to be completely steroid free.
I am not sure what impact, if any, the steroid inhaler is having on my TSW. It is a low dose, but steroid addiction is due to the cumulative result of steroid use, so surely every time I puff, I am adding to the problem.
It's a scary subject because obviously, my first priority is breathing. I have no intention of doing anything dangerous. The previous times I tried to quit the inhaler I failed because my chest got congested and I could taste blood when I coughed.
However, I'm not sure that I can completely heal if I am using steroids, which leaves me in a kind of limbo, I suppose. Then again, Dr Fukaya, a Japanese dermatologist who has studied the science behind steroid addiction says that inhaled steroids do not contribute to topical steroid addiction. I guess this leaves me with more questions than answers yet again.
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