I want my eighty dollars back, you incompetent ass.

The BBQ Pit
1

Backstory: Two weeks ago I saw the nurse on campus for the first time. We don’t have a doctor. She said to come back on Monday if my cough didn’t improve. It didn’t, I did, she prescribed me two drugs: Advair, twice a day for at least two weeks, and albuterol, as needed for the coughing fits I was having.

I dutifully got the prescriptions filled. I paid eighty-three dollars, which for me, is a lot of money. I set an alarm on my phone to remind myself to take the Advair. Still slower than I’d like, I began to feel better. By yesterday morning I was pretty much fine: an cough or three if I take a deep breath, but nothing I’d consider medication for.

So I posted on another message board, where they have what’s basically an ‘ask-a-doctor’ forum, asking if it’s safe to stop taking the Advair. Why? One of the side-effects listed is that it can weaken your immune system, and the flu is going around campus. I can’t afford to get sick again, especially not with the flu. The response I got, loosely paraphrased: “Yes, you can stop taking it, and I don’t know why it would have been prescribed at all. Advair’s not indicated for acute bronchitis, and in an otherwise healthy person, you’re going to start to get better on your own before an oral steroid does any good at all. There wasn’t any reason for you to take it at all.”

Interesting. I do what I should have done before even seeing the nurse and did some research. Albuterol for reducing coughing in bronchitis: May help, but not a standard treatment. Advair for non-chronic bronchitis? Absolutely nothing whatsoever supporting that, or even mentioning it.

Why did the nurse prescribe these drugs? Fuck if I know. Maybe she was pissed that I wouldn’t answer her questions about my sex life(!). Why did I stupidly fill the prescriptions without spending ten minutes doing my own research? Fuck if I know, maybe because I’m a terminal idiot. I don’t know who I’m more pissed at right now, myself or our obviously incompetent rent-a-nurse. She probably works here because she can’t get a job at a normal doctor’s practice or hospital. I imagine college students are easier to work with: we’re in the prime of life and can bounce back from most anything, drastically reducing the need for a medical professional to know what the hell they’re doing.

So I’m out $83, have 47 doses of one useless $43 dollar drug left, and about 190 doses another useless $40 drug. And I’m fucking pissed about it.

2

So you’re taking advice you got via a message board over the nurse who actually examined you?

3

I’d go see another doctor before I would decide whether or not to stop taking the medicine based on an online message board.

I have been prescribed the wrong medicine for a skin condition, but I found out about it when I went to a new doctor.

Go get a second opinion…in person, this time.

4

Their advice is basically correct. Advair and albuterol are serious drugs for chronic conditions like Asthma, I’ve never heard them being prescribed for minor cough from temporary bronchitis

5

That does sound funny. And I assume the nurse the OP saw is a Nurse practitioner and not just an RN.

6

For what it’s worth, I had an actual doctor (albeit one at a walk-in clinic) prescribe me Advair for persistent coughs. I took it for a week and saw no improvement, so I went back to the same clinic. It was a different doctor this time and she said, “Why’d he give you Advair? That’s for asthma. You have bronchitis.”

7

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Advair, albuterol, whatever.
What I wanna know is what is it about your sex life that you’re so anxious to keep secret? :stuck_out_tongue:

8

However, a case of bronchitis can lead to a certain amount of bronchospasm - which the albuterol would relieve. This can happen even in someone who hasn’t been formally diagnosed with asthma; if you’ve got some minor asthmatic tendencies they might only ever manifest when dealing with a respiratory infection.

Advair is a combination of fluticasone (inhaled steroid) and salmeterol (longer-acting bronchodilator - similar to albuterol but not as fast-acting. Certainly when an asthmatic is dealing with a respiratory-infection-induced increase in symptoms, adding or increasing those two medications may be indicated. So it’s not outlandish that the OP was prescribed this.

It is certainly possible that the Advair was overkill in this situation. I’m not a doctor and not qualified to say so. When my kids were on “as needed only” use of their preventative inhalers, which basically meant they started them when they caught a virus and symptoms flared, we backed them off once the illness resolved and their symptoms improved.

9

My privacy, really. It was fairly inappropriate: I went in looking for advice about a head cold, and she started asking if I was sexually active, had I ever been, etc. I just told her I wasn’t comfortable discussing it, as it was entirely irrelevant.

She is a CNP, and apparently also an MN (whatever that means).

I’m taking the advice I got from two different (alleged, I grant) doctors online, plus what I found in my own research. Even here in this thread, I can’t see any supporting evidence whatsoever that Advair is doing me any good.

I don’t have asthmatic tendencies, or a history of asthma, or anything. I played sports from kindergarten all through high school and I do a cardio workout at least once a week, usually three times a week. I’m pretty sure that if I had the slightest inclination towards asthma, it would have shown up, say, when I was six years old playing soccer, not when I’m 21 with a bad cough.

And I really can’t go see another doctor, as I have no time to go see one, nor any way to get there if I had the time, nor can I really spare the twenty bucks for a copay. At this point, it doesn’t matter anyway, because I’m really no longer sick.

Honestly, I’m mostly pissed off at myself. I generally try to research any sort of drug before spending my money on it, and I stupidly didn’t do that this time.

10

What message board is that?

11

With all due respect, dear, we know you’re sexually active; if you’re going to be protective of your privacy, you should be consistent about it.

Advair is a maintenance inhaler and I don’t understand what possible good it would do you unless your cough persisted for more than a month. However - see a doctor.

12

I had an inkling of what it was, and indeed I was right, but I’m not going to just say what it is, since NinjaChick might not want the SDMB to know.

13

I didn’t know that nurses could prescribe medications. Is MN Master of Nursing?

14

Nurse practitioners can.

According to Wikipedia, MN is indeed a master of nursing. It is also the abbreviation for Minnesota or Mongolia, the chemical symbol for manganese, and the name of a Filipino film released in 1954.

15

Any chance of a b/c link? I promise not to even think about looking for her post.

16

I’ve been prescribed what I think is the same things in the past as NinjaChick for the same symptoms - endless hacking coughing fits. I don’t think I have asthmatic tendencies, but my colds sometimes go into my lungs and stay there - like you said, I cough a lot, which irritates my bronchioles, which causes the bronchospasms, and the bronchospasms make me cough, etc. etc, world without end. I don’t think the OP got bad advice at all, especially in light of the fact that the treatment worked.

As for asking about your sex life, that’s just a standard profile question. I don’t think a woman ever gets out of a doctor’s office without telling them when your last period was, either (funny somewhat-related story - when I went to emergency for dehydration from the flu, they asked me when my last period was. My confusion and not being able to answer the question pretty much nailed down my dehydration diagnosis. :smiley: )

17

Oh, it’s way worse in college. “I broke my arm.” “Are you sexually active?” “There is a knife in my eye.” “Do you think you might be pregnant?” “I am vomiting blood.” “Here is a cough drop. How many sexual partners have you had?”

18

Unless the woman used to be a man and sometimes not even then.

19

[nitpick] MN is not the chemical symbol for manganese. Mn is. Capitalization matters in such things: PB indicates phosphorus and boron, whereas Pb indicates lead. [/nitpick]

20

Funny, when I was in college every time I went to the student health center they always asked, “have you been under any stress lately?”

Let’s see. Single parent. Three kids. Job. School. They always schedule elementary school teachers conferences during midterms despite the college being the biggest thing in the town. Not enough money. Car acting up - again. I’d say I’ve been under stress for about three years now. Now could I get some cream for this rash on the back of my hand?

Never said it. Wanted to.

Never got asked about my sex life, which is a pity. The laugh would have done me good.