Confused about rescue vs maintenance inhalers?

(Allergy and Asthma Network)

Do you ever look at a poster like this and think "huh? I'm confused!"

Join the club. 

 

It seems a lot of people are confused, there are discs and inhalers. So what do you use and for what? 

 

All the discs I have seen are for maintenance medication, so you use them every day.

But what about metered dose inhalers? They look the same, except for color, so which ones are used for every day (maintenance or controller medications) and which are used for when you are having problems breathing (rescue or emergency inhalers)?

It's hard to tell a difference, Son #2 has two inhalers, one is Advair (so he uses it every day) the other is Xopenex, so he uses it when he's having problems breathing. 

 

One is purple, one is blue. Hubby can't tell the difference, as much as I love him, he wouldn't know what to do if Son #2 was in trouble.

I know some companies are developing stickers to put on inhalers."Iggy and the Inhalers" has controller inhaler and rescue inhaler stickers for purchase. They are designed for kids, and can help them (and their parents) tell which one is a controller inhaler, and which is a reliever inhaler.

For my family, I use a black marker and write on the inhaler "controller" for the every day inhaler and "reliever" for the inhaler that is used to quickly relieve symptoms. 

 

 That way, not only do the kids know which is which, but Hubby will too (just in case someone panics-not that any of us have EVER panicked during an asthma attack)

Has anyone else found a good way of marking your inhalers to tell them apart? I would be interested to see what other people have found that help.