Advice, please!

[Wheezycat]

Hi all! When I read all the posts I am really struck how much many of you have to cope with. I am lucky, it is not so bad for me. But I still find it difficult.

My significant asthma started about 15 months ago, when I ended up in hospital for a few days. My medication was adjusted and for 15 months I stayed out of trouble. Hooray! But then just over two weeks ago I got a cold for the first time. Within 24 hours I knew I was in trouble. Unlike previous time I sought help with speed, and got it (being older and having ended up in hospital once, I do get taken seriously!). So two courses of prednisolone and now on antibiotics, I am very slowly improving. Very slowly. But I still feel rubbish and feeble, and I don’t like it. A doctor friend of mine has told me to ‘love my lungs and not forget what a grand job they have done for me’. She is right. So how can I help them and me to improve further? Warm, moist air was suggested. That leaves me with three options: towel over the head with steam, a humidifier or, perhaps, a nebuliser but without medication. Any thoughts?

I work a few hours per week and at present that is a struggle, even though it is not many hours. I walk when I can, but only short distances at this stage, like round the block. I feel like a whimp. Any ideas?

[Hidden]

Hi good advice from your doctor friend there. Loving your lungs means a lot more than steaming etc. Some of those can be helpful but everyone is different.

You need to also exercise your lungs as much as possible and start getting a lot fitter. What you eat is also important so google foods goods for asthmatics. There are lots of exercises online for you too.

Do you have a written action plan? If not ask your nurse/doctor for one. There is an asthma nurse you can ring on here so that might be a good idea too. x

[Wheezycat in reply to Hidden]

Hi!

Thank you for your response. It was the same doctor friend who suggested warm, moist air, so it is something I need to be aware of to help me get over these things, give my lungs an optimum chance. As for excercise, obviously it is something I do normally, even though I am challenged in that department just now. Loving my lungs also means giving them a good chance to heal without challenging too much. If I have a tendency, it is to ignore warning signs, rather than being too cautious, but I am trying to improve on that front. So I do my best just now to gage what I can cope with, and gradually try to increase. Once back to normal I can do loads more. I am generally a healthy eater, though I do also have some temptations that may not be the best. I love veg, especially, including for breakfast (I have just finished my tomatoes on rice cakes. Yummy!) as for an action plan, yes, I certainly have one, but they address what to do if you are in trouble, not how to help your lungs heal. So, my question remains, how best to provide that warm moist air?

[kate_uk in reply to Wheezycat]

Before going out and buying anything check that warm moist air is going to help. High humidity is a trigger for me, a hot steamy bath can make me worse not better.

[Wheezycat in reply to kate_uk]

Hi, yes, you are right, I would be wary of going into a sauna now, but I was referring to warm moisture, not hot high humidity. So, perhaps a bit like what you get in a swimming bath. I am really at not keen on them, the noise, the competitive style of swimming rather than a nice potter about in the water, so I don’t tend to go, even though I do love being in water. If they added some fish and I could swim with a snorkel would help.

[Yatzy]

Hi. I know a steamy atmosphere helps me to breathe when I’m having trouble. I discovered this when my asthma began to escalate rapidly when I stayed in a hotel, as I often had to do in my job. I found filling the bathroom with steam and taking a chair in there was my best hope of coping. Now I have a longer shower before bedtime and that helps the night to start in a better place at least. I read on this blog that you can buy a steam machine of sorts. Mine is called a Facial Sauna with Inhaler, and I bought it from Amazon. I’m still getting to know it but so far it seems to help ‘refresh’ my breathing. It also gives me a quick facial if I use the larger face applicator rather than the intended smaller steam inhaler fitment! I’m feeling optimistic.

[Wheezycat in reply to Yatzy]

I will look into this! But I may start with towel over the head with warm, not hot, water, first, just to see.

[Yorkie57 in reply to Wheezycat]

This sounds so like my own predicament. I came down with my first cold of the year on Monday 18th September. It was only a head cold to start with but by Thursday morning I was wheezing badly and ended up having a bad attack resulting in a visit from the Paramedics who put me on the nebuliser which made me feel much better. A visit to my GP that afternoon included another neb session plus Preds and antibiotics. Friday I started to feel better and by Sunday I felt totally ok and even went for a bike ride. Woke up Monday feeling crap again but carried on until my prescription ran out Thursday and saw my GP again who prescribed more Preds and different antibiotics. These ran out last Thursday and was prescribed another course of both although the Doctor really wanted to send me to hospital. Up until yesterday I felt I was improving but today I seem to have gone backwards again. I also find steam to be a trigger so be cautious.

[lhorne4]

Good Afternoon: Wheezycat

Love your name by the way :). I wanted to tell you that I have been taking Vitamin C in liquid form called Liposomal C which I make myself. I have been on it for over four weeks and I have to tell you it has made a difference in my asthma. I wanted to share this with my friends on this site because studies have shown that Vitamin C reduces asthma symptoms. If interested look up Liposomal Vitamin C on Youtube. I went from four nebulizer treatments and my rescue inhaler 2 puffs every four hours to a nebulizer treatment once a week if I feel congested. You can even ask your Doctor about Vitamin C and asthma. I started noticing improvements within the first week.

[Wheezycat in reply to lhorne4]

Thank you for your response. I will consider it.