Zyflo

[Guest guest]

Well I started Zyflo last week and it is working amazingly well -- I can breathe through both nostrils most of the time. This is compared to before I was on it a couple of weeks ago when the polyp in my left nostril was so large and protuding out of my nose that anyone could see it. I am sure they still want me to have the surgery to get cleaned out by at least I know the Zyflo is doing something and may be very effective at helping prevent the polyp regrowth.

There are definitely some down sides to Zyflo which I'm well aware of. For one thing, it can damage your liver. So can lots of other drugs, too, but this one you have to have your liver enzymes monitored. I'm not thrilled about that but I also am desperatedly in need of some control here.

You also have to take it four times a day. And it's quite expensive, but I did find a loophole in my insurance where they'll send my medications to me at home and I only have to pay the copay once every three months, so although Zyflo is on the third tier nad costs $50 it's at least $50 every three months instead of every month. It is tricky because it doesn't show Zyflo at all on their website and for quite a while now I thought it wasn't on my insurance at all so I never tried it before. But then this new doctor highly recommended it and he's an expert in Samters so I decided to pursue it and lo and behold it was covered by my insurance.

Has anyone else taken Zyflo? I am concerned that it might be doing other things to my immune system. I never EVER get colds or viruses or upper respiratory tract infections. I know this might seem weird but I really don't. Now that I'm on the Zyflo I have a wicked sore throat and lots of coughing and I just feel sick. I am wondering if it could be just I opened up the sinuses and let some stuff get in or if it's doing something else that's preventing my body from fighting this off the way it would. I actually am worried I might have walking pneumonia. I am also worried about lung metastases from my breast cancer but that may be more paranoia than anything else. I am due to go to the pulmonologist but we leave in a week for our wedding and quite honestly if the cancer has spread I don't want to know before we leave. But tomorrow I'll see the allergist and hopefully he can give a better read on what might be going on in terms of my upper respiratory tract. The Zyflo opened everything up and I love breathing through my nose but I FEEL worse.

I have some files at work that we transcribed about inhaled steroids in asthma and there were some comments made by doctors about "If you're not convinced by now that you shouldn't prescribe anti-leukotrienes, this should convince you" etc, etc. I haven't had a chance to review all the files but I am going to try to find what they are talking about so that I know if there's any bad things going on with these leukotriene modifiers that we should know about. They certainly help but if they're going to do more harm than good than it might not be good to stay on them.

Lori