I’ve been blowing money on my Advair Diskus for years. That was my first thought when I saw how many CFers were on Advair 250/50 from reading their blogs. So I asked when I went to clinic last time. I’ve been on Xopenex puffers, but those darn things are a $50 co-pay!
“Why the heck am I on 150/50 when everyone else is on such a higher dose?”
The doctor left the room and brought me a sample of 500/50 and a puffer of Advair HFA 230/21 with a big grin. “That should do.”
I’ve been wanting to go on a low dose of Prednisone because of how good it makes my lungs feel, but (in his words) “we don’t want you breaking every rib when you cough after a transplant.” This is his steroid compromise for me, so I’ll take it, especially since the increases dosage does seem to be doing the job.
I read the inserts with the Advairs, and it sure seems to improve function tests, though I doubt they were using low-end CFers in the study – most likely just asthmatics – but the numbers were impressive and the co-pay for the diskus was only $35. We also got a $50 rebate from the clinic when we fill them, so every little bit helps when the bills keep coming in until we reach our out-of-pocket maximum for the year on non-Rx items.
