sorry for moaning. I have had this cold for weeks. All the cold symptoms are much better but I can’t get rid of this horrible gunky chest. My peak flow is down (230 this morning, best is 410 but I never make that in the morning). At night I try to sleep sitting up but wake up choking on horrid gunk. My chest muscles ache from coughing. I can talk but if I try to chat for more than a few minutes I’m wheezing and coughing. I am sure I don’t have a chest infection. I think the cold has just made my asthma go loopy. I am cancelling stuff all over the place. If I don’t go to my yoga tonight I won’t have been for a month. And I am looking likely to be bailing out of a girls night out on Friday. The constantly cancelling on people is really getting to me. How do you all manage this when your asthma is causing mayhem with your social and family life?
Hope everyone is surviving the cold the bugs and the trees xxx
Written by
Emily-G
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Good question. It is hard, especially this time of year. Just try to focus on getting better. I am going through the same at the moment. Because of being in hospital, I am missing so much! I had to cancel a course I was on and go back on the waiting list. I missed a weekend away visiting family. My cousin's daughter is getting married in a few weeks and we were to have a girlie meal out. I am afraid I will miss the wedding itself if I don't get better soon. It is frustrating but at the age of 41, I haven't solved it yet. I will be well for awhile and then I am ill for awhile. Asthma is unpredictable and can be cruel. I hope you are feeling better soon. Rest is the only remedy. Hope you are back to normal soon. xxx
I was thinking of you on Mother’s Day, at least I was on the sofa at home with my brood.
I have a friends birthday coming up and a wedding the following weekend. Nephews and nieces birthdays and everyone tells me how important it is that I come ( and I really love them all and so want to be there)
I am hoping fo a well spell before the pollen hits north east scotland.
I really hope you feel well soon and get home 💕 xxx
Thanks Emma. I appreciate it. Hope you feel better soon. It is no fun missing out on life because of asthma. I guess we just have to remember to rest when we are ill so that we heal more quickly. Hope all is well and take care. xxx
Hi Em sounds familiar to my situation. I have been stable for several years on Relvar but this winter had a bad flu like illness and developed chesty cough, been on antibiotics but peak flow down from normal 550 to 350 at times. Coughing at night, feeling rough. Unable to go to the gym which has always been good to me. I was put on oral prednisolone two days ago and the effect has been remarkable, blew 550 for first time this year. 500 this morning, which is great first thing. Have you ever taken prednisolone?
I love relvar and dread them ever deciding to change it. I should ve said was on pred last week. I ll probably end up on it this week again. I hate the stuff but it usually takes 2 goes of it to set me better. Feels like half the time my asthma nurse is putting me back on it and half the time she is saying we need to try to use less of it. I was doing really well for me this year til I got the stupid cold.
Hope you get back to the gym and asthma gets stable again xxx
Cheers yep I'm thinking the Pred has had such a positive effect on me because I have only ever had it once before around five years ago. It is difficult and I see the reasons for your asthma nurse not wanting you to be on it too much. Yep the Relvar has been the best thing I've been on. The weather this winter has been a big factor I think. So hopefully we will all be better for a bit of sun all the best Em.
It may be worth taking yourself down to a&e to see if they can get everything to settle back down again esp if you’re struggling to sleep/talk properly, esp if you’re constantly dropping to 50% each morning (I’m assuming you’ve already seen your GP). Last time I had a cold it lingered forever and I ended up having 3 days of hydrocortisone as an outpatient then a week or so later I was admitted for a week as it was just my asthma not calming, rather than the initial infection that had already been treated (although I was still coughing up yellow gunk as part of my uncontrolled asthma).
It’s horrible when your breathing dictates that you can’t have a life! Cancelling stuff you’ve been looking forward to is going to put a dampener on your mood too 😔. Not going to lie, I’ve ignored my lungs and just ODed on ventolin before just to go to an event... not the best of ideas, but mental health does play an important role in getting us back to healthy again (at least that’s what I told myself 😅). I did suffer for it, but I coped (and admitted to myself and others I probs shouldn’t be there, and if I worsened I’d have to go 😒). It’s horrible how asthma can control your life, esp when you’re fed up and want to move on from it!
Remember on here, we all understand so feel free to rant as necessary! I hope you start to feel better soon, and that you get to go on your girls night out xxx
Thank you lovely - I have spoken to a very helpful and reassuring asthma uk nurse and am now waiting for a call back from gp surgery. I really don’t like going to the surgery when I know I don’t have any infection just flared up reacty lungs. I’m having a cuppa til they phone back. Think my yoga tonight won’t be happening but hopeful still of bouncing back for later in the week. Feel silly now for being down this morning . Hope you are taking care too and as well as possible xxx
I understand... it’s very frustrating when your lungs just don’t settle down, then your stuck seeing your GP again and again (esp when you don’t feel bad enough to go to the hosp), however sometimes that’s they only way for them to realise what you’re going through and how uncontrolled you are... we also tend to forget that what becomes normal for us when unwell is actually abnormal and worrisome to doctors sometimes! Hopefully you’re GP will have a plan for you and will ring back soon!
🤞 you’ll be feeling better by Friday! Don’t worry about it, not being able to breathe properly and is going to play on you mood (even the pred can do that!). I’ve had a full break down (tears and all) on my GP before during a bad batch where I hit the point where I just couldn’t do another night of multiple wake ups and struggling throughout the day 😳😅😂. Luckily I’m now in a ‘good’ patch (since the snow disappeared) and 🤞it stays that way!!
My nebs have been put up to 4 a day and I’ve got more pred and another prescription if I need it. Surely this ll sort out this pest of a chest.
I was v wobbly this morning , a friend who came round had to cope with tears. Too long with too little sleep, it wasn’t pretty.
Hopefully if I sit tight and let the meds do their job I ll bounce back quickly. My asthma is v rollercoaster quick to flare and thank fully quick to bounce back.
I also have been suffering from a phlegmy chest caused apoarently by the asthma, for most of the winter. I do not feel ill in any other way except that I wake up having to cough out phlegm whenever I wake up in the night or morning. The rest of the day is quite a lot better.
It is not chest infections I am pretty sure now, as I have no other symptoms. It is just an over response of the immune system.
I am getting lung tightness with the asthma in the early and late evening once or twice every day, always around the same time, and needing the ventolin to relieve it. If I catch it early the salt pipe does occasionally relieve it!
I have come to the conclusion that I was fine wherever I lived that had sea air- ie air with salt in it containing magnesium. I never had any asthma in those places. Now I am living far from sea- ie hours away in all directions, but not in a very polluted place.
I am therefore trying to use a medium himalayan rock salt lamp (4-6 kilos), plus a salt pipe and I am taking Magnesium plus (Magnesium citrate 750mg, D3 and K2), as well as a multivitamin/ minerals and probiotics- 5 strains- all suitable for vegetarians.
Also I am trying to take baths 2 to 3 times a week for about 15 mins with Epsom salts, Magnesium flakes and Himalayan rock salt, and lung relaxing anti inflammatory and antiseptic essential oils (just in case there is any infection).
I am also trying to eat and drink less wheat and dairy products and eat more Magnesium rich foods such as leafy greens, nuts, avocado etc.
I think taking a immune system nourishing mushroom complex may also help me as it has helped some people to get rid of their asthma.
I am determined to get off ventolin and not to get on any other drugs as it is hard to get off them! There are people who have managed to completely rid themselves of asthma believe it or not!!!
I think we are all deficient in Magnesium and D3 especially in the winter, and have found supplementation to make a big difference in terms of reducing the number of attacks and severity, if I take the Magnesium Plus every day for a few weeks.
Wish you all the best with recovering from this little understood and annoying illness. Be optimistic and I hope my suggestions can help you!
PS also I am trying to do a half hour walk as many mornings as I can in a green place- a park or nature reserve or large garden as exercuse has been found to help lung function.
Losing weight is another thing I am attempting slowly.
Instead of wheat I am trying rye/ spelt sourdough bread or ryevita crackers. This is because wheat is particularly effective in stopping us burning fat - due to it blocking the hormone Leptin.
Hi- sorry forgot to answer about the essential oils.
For relaxing/ calming: you can use lavender, chamomile, honey suckle, ylang ylang,lemon verbena, lemon balm/ melissa, cedarwood, rose geranium or vetiver oil! My favourites are rose geranium, honeysuckle , lemon verbena and vetiver!
As anti microbial oils you can use lavender for bacteria, lemon oil also for bacteria and some viruses, cinnamon, clove, mint, oregano, thyme, sage, frankincense, eucalyptus ... but my favourites for a bath would be lemon, frankincense and clove. Clove is particularly good for your lungs and frankincense is another anti inflammatory so it might help too.
Thanks for this, I am just cautiously starting with essential oils as they seem to help my autistic daughter’s anxiety. This gives me lots of ideas. I am hoping to do a basic aromatherapy course soon. Some oils do annoy my asthma tho, patchouli seems to disagee with me so I am going carefully.
Hi sounds like a good idea. Don't use oils in diffusers for more than a few minutes and the air becomes too concentrated in the oils if you leabe the diffuser on longer than eg. 15 mins. Yes test each one in small amounts- usually diluted in almond oil.
Regarding autism- probiotics are apparently helpful as a lot of problems in the brain stem from the digestive system and incomplete absorbtion of nutrients.
Some oils are useful for autism not only for calming but also for focus and concentration.
I know how you feel. I've had a horrific cold, I'd say it's been flu except for the fact I did actually have the flu jab last Sept, but this has been horrendous.I'm now on antibiotics and prednisolone for 7 days, started them yesterday. I can't do anything. I'm exhausted and coughing terribly. I have been napping in the day to make up for the sleepless nights and exhaustion. I'm also cancelling things all over the place. Hopefully the drugs will kick in soon.
Hope you feel well soon. I think maybe you also need some antibiotics and steroids.
Sorry that you are feeling bad too. Nurse practitioner yesterday was lovely and I am on regular nebulisers til I am better - I have a habit of cutting back on medication at the first sign of an improvement.
Hi Emily, I know exactly what you mean about having to cancel and feeling bad about letting friends down and missing out. My asthma’s been much worse than usual this winter and I’ve had to back out of things a lot - it can feel as though you don’t have much of a life.
I find it helps to remember that your friends care for you and want you to be well - they don’t want you to do things that will make you ill - and to be kind to yourself and remember that there will be times when you can do more.
Gosh this all sounds so familiar. I realised this morning that I haven't been out of the house since last Friday. Head pounding and coughing all week and lots of gunk in chest and sinus. Also feel really low. Cried for two hours last night. Always cancelling things. Oh and to top it off I have my first benefits assessment at 12 today. They will definately see me at my worst. It is so hard but we have to keep going and hope things will improve. Feeling your frustration and sending hugs xx
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