Yes - very anxiety-provoking. When we sent out most allergic (asthmatic
plus anaphylactic to milk, eggs, and nuts) to middle school, it was to a
very moldy building. He deteriorated steadily, until we had the building
tested and the mold treated. We parents discover strengths we never thought
we had(!).

Our son uses Singulair - fortunately, the lactose does not trigger his
asthma or other symptoms, in spite of his extreme sensitivity to milk. We
had thought that it was provoking other symptoms, but those symptoms
remained after stopping the Singulair, and only went away when our guinea
pig died.

He uses the Pulmicort powder inhaler, which contains nothing other than the
medication
(http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/cgi-bin/az_pi.cgi?product=pulmicort_th&country=us&inFrame=no).

These things can't really be manually compounded. They all come in a
high-tech plastic case of some type or another. Internally they differ, but
they all have some type of sophisticated means of dispensing exactly the
right amount of powdered medication into an inhalation chamber for each
inhalation. Some have internal capsules (not accessible to the used) that
get punctured at each activation.

I understand there's an alternative to Serevent - another long-acting
broncodilator. I don't recall its name or whether it contains any lactose.

So far, we haven't yet had any trouble getting aerosol Flovent or Albuterol
in the US. Haven't tried to get Serevent in a why - thank goodness we
haven't needed it.

If you have a Children's Hospital in your area, you probably want to be
seen there. Ours in Boston has provided excellent support during the most
trying times, and has been especially helpful in stabilizing him with
medications that work for him.

Good luck,

Mark