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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Asthma. 2011 Oct 25;48(10):1022–1031. doi: 10.3109/02770903.2011.626482
Provider: The Advair now comes in an inhaler, and the one that you are used to, the purple disk? Which one do you prefer? Using an inhaler or the round disk?
Patient: The inhaler.
Provider: The inhaler? You felt much better? Okay. It is still the same medication it is just in a different form? It doesn’t have that powdery taste.
Patient: Alright.
Provider: So, um, we can talk about switching your medication to an inhaler form, okay? But again it comes in different strengths. It also has the same three strengths, the 100/50, the 250/50, and the 500/50, do you remember which one it was? Did it come in the green, yellow, or red?
Patient: I’d say green.
Provider: Green? Cause that is the lowest. Green is the 100/50, the yellow is the 250/50, and the red is the 500/50, okay? So, it is like the stop sign: green is good, yellow is caution, red is bad, okay? So, you need to take your medicine every single day okay? Otherwise you will be back here, and you will say I don’t feel good. Your Advair, you have got to take it every single day whether you are well or not, okay? So it just depends on you not feeling good and that needs to you need to carry yourself to the doctor because sometimes we need to bump up your dose of the Advair, like right now I am leaning on putting you on the middle strength of the Advair, okay? Because you have had symptoms for the last three months and then we start backing up. That’s why it’s important you come back, okay?
Patient: Okay.
Provider: In about three weeks, let’s see if we need to bump him up more, or we can go down to the green but right now we are going to go with the yellow, okay? Advair, got it?
Patient: Yep.
Provider: And you need to use it properly, first time you use a canister of albuterol, or the Advair, whichever you have, you have to shake it good and prime it. Prime it is when you waste a few squirts ok? And then you use it, next time you use it you don’t have to prime it. Ok?
Patient: Okay.
Provider: Do you have any questions for me?
Patient: No.
Provider: No? Okay.