Hi, Folks -

In hospital they were giving me inhalations of Albuterol about every 6 hours. I have no idea if that was actually helpful but perhaps it was. I gather this is standard for diagnoses of COPD.

On release from the hospital I was given three prescriptions, for Albuterol, Advair, and Spiriva. I filled the one for Albuterol but not the other two, which seemed to cost too much. I used the Albuterol somewhat sparingly, not wanting to become habituated to it if I could help it. Still, it meant refilling the prescription several times since release from the hospital.

I'm just about out of it now, but I'm told CVS cannot refill it without my being seen by the doctor for the first time in a year. I gather this is a requirement of AMA or Medicare or just one of the "standards of practice".

I'd find such a visit to be something of a hardship, for a variety of reasons. For one, I'm pretty much house-bound at this point; I don't own a car, and my nephew would have to drive an hour each way to pick me up and get me to the doctor's office.

At present I'm trying to wean myself from the Albuterol entirely, and wondering if OTC Primatene Mist might serve the purpose suitably, though it's a pretty different critter. Albuterol is said to be a "beta2-agonist", whatever that is, while Primatene is basically adrenalin ("epinephrine", as in an "epi pen"). Some concerns are that Primatene may elevate blood pressure, might increase difficulty urinating, could make it hard to sleep, etc.

Have any of our Readers ever tried to make such a shift, from Albuterol to Primatene? Or is any of our Readers a practitioner who has specific thoughts on this? Use the 'Send E-mail' link at the top of this post to let me know what you think.

--hobie