Pulmicort (Budesonide) - Part 2

Pulmicort Flexhaler is a dry powder inhaler that is quite easy to use. Follow the instructions in the enclosed handout or print this one. You'll need to prime the inhaler before you use it the first time and then load each dose properly thereafter. Be sure to keep track of the doses you have left, using the built-in dose meter and refill it when needed. With a DPI, it's important not to shake the device or breathe into it when using it. Also, even though you might not be able to "feel" the medicine going into your lungs, it is doing so. So don't repeat the inhalation or you may overdose.

Inhaled steroids like Pulmicort only work if you take them and if you take them regularly. And, as mentioned above, they take a while to start working to their full potential. So saving them for when your asthma symptoms appear or worsen isn't an effective way to control your asthma. If you need quick relief for asthma symptoms, then you'll want to use your quick-relief, or rescue, inhaler.

When you take more than one kind of medicine, they may interact with each other in unexpected ways. Check out our medical encyclopedia entries for Pulmicort Respules and Pulmicort Flexhaler to see if there are any interactions among the drugs you are taking.

When to Call Your Doctor:

• Your breathing problems (or your child's) get worse while you are taking Pulmicort.
• You need to start using your rescue inhaler more often than usual.
• Your rescue inhaler stops relieving your asthma symptoms.
• You need to use 4 or more puffs of your rescue inhaler for 2 or more days in a row.
• You use 1 whole canister of your rescue inhaler medicine in less than 8 weeks time.
• Your peak flow meter results worsen.
• Your asthma symptoms do not improve after you've been using Pulmicort regularly for 1 to 2 weeks.
• You come down with the symptoms of measles or chickenpox.

• 1
• 2