Persistent chest infections

A bit of a moaning post I'm afraid!!

Been off work for 2 weeks now as I had a very bad viral illness and have been suffering from something called post-viral myelitis???

Anyway, as I went to see the GP last week I caught a cold in the GP surgery! and as per usual it has gone straight to my chest and lungs and given me an infection. Had a really bad day today and I think the anti-biotics reacted really badly with my stomach (got new ones to try). I was supposed to be starting back work on Wednesday but may need to rethink that now!

Does anyone else here have constant problems with chest infections? I just constantly seem to have them now, especially all through winter and the pain at my lungs can be terrible. I am wondering if it is because of my asthma that I am perhaps more prone to these things? I had never had a chest infection until 3 years ago until I had pneumonia and since then it has been constant.

It's selfish but I'm hoping there are others out there like me! With all this swine flu panic people are actually avoiding me in the street as I am going around coughing all the time! (must admit that secretly is a bit fun :P)

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Hi Pam,

I can sympathise with you over the constant chest infections. Having been diagnosed with asthma myself last year, last winter was really bad for me, constant colds and chest infections for 3 months, and i never use to get a cold, so what a pain, prednisolone and AntiB's help, but I found that, that alone was not enough to prevent me getting ill again, so experimented a bit with alternative methods, and have found that 1000mg of vitamin C a day and sinus rinse (recent topic covered if you search) have kept me in good health since the new year, also the use of antiseptic lozenges (Tesco do a nice own brand version).

Hope you get well soon, but then work on trying to stay that way is probably easier, and far better in the long term.

Chris

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Persistant chest infections

Hi Chris

picking up on this message I feel that your recommendation for high levels of vit c may be what I need . I seem to be picking up cold after cold this year which goes straight to my chest and I have a constant cough .Recedntly had a bad session with asthma, and hay fever , just got over that and another cold arrives, my immune system must be low . Can you give me more info on sinus spray as this may help with the constant nasal drip I get down my throat and which exacibates my cough

Cheers

Mo

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Woody

Thanks for the advice. I think I will try the vitamin C boost and see if this helps me. I have been thinking lately of looking into more natural medicines and alternative treatments as not only do I keep getting the infections regardless of the medications I am quite limited in the types of antibiotics I can take due to allergies.

I think the pneumonia I had 3 years ago seems to have definately left some kind of weakness but hopefully if I boost my immune system as a whole I will at least be able to cope better with colds etc

Thanks again and I'm glad I;m not alone!

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MO, the sinus rinse system I use is neilmed.com but I no longer use the recommended saline solution, but simple sea salt, seem to work just as well. The bottle is supposed to be easier than the traditional netti-pot, but without trying the netti-pot I couldn't confirm this.

The 1000mg of Vitamin C is a daily thing I've done since the start of the year, and found that the effervescent tablets from tesco made a good choice, so use that when exercising in the water bottle, but also a daily tablet that has a time release formula from natures best (code 623-180), so some days that's actually 2000mg, but I have stayed well this year, and no problems with the high(ish) dose.