Experts!

[RD23]

Why is it when you have asthma, suddenly everyone around you becomes an expert in YOUR asthma?! Safe to say I’m feeling frustrated and down after ending up in A&E again yesterday, third attack in two weeks! No chest infection, chest sounded clear after the meds, no logical explanation other than all my triggers just add up and then my windpipe reacts like a pressure cooker! The earliest I can get in with my specialist is the end of January!

My manager has told me I’m too stubborn and go back to work too soon, my boyfriend tells me I’m too stubborn and I need to listen to my body and so do my parents. Well yes, sometimes, most of the time, I’m too stubborn for my own good but that stubborn streak also pulls me through countless asthma attacks so maybe it’s not that bad after all. I know people only do it because they care but making various ‘helpful’ suggestions on how I can try and improve it just has the opposite effect. Am I really awful and ungrateful? I don’t know what to do and it’s my asthma so I don’t really know how suddenly work, my parents and my boyfriend have all the answers I’ve been searching for!

I will stop being cranky now and attempt to sit in a position that doesn’t kill my ribs! I think I’ll watch a comedy, kill or cure 😂

[Hidden]

Sorry but stubbornness does not help you get through asthma. It really does get in the way.

I completely get the frustration. I just got out of hospital after a four day stay that started with an asthma attack and moved on to complications from the necessary treatment.

You still have to rest after being released. I’ve taken up knitting. It keeps me from overdoing it after I’ve gotten out.

Asthma isn’t something you can just push through. Trying to do so will just make things worse. I don’t have to know you to know that. That’s asthma, not anything individual about you.

[RD23]

Sorry to hear you’ve been bad as well, how are you doing now?

I guess we all have our different ways of dealing with it and that’s always been mine and it’s served me well for the last thirty years but I do understand what you mean and that sometimes I have to listen to my body.

[Wheezycat]

We are all so different. I find that I am grateful when people point things out to me. I have been stubborn/stoical to the point of making myself really ill with asthma, but part of the problem was that I didn’t recognise my own issues, quite literarily did not notice. Still don’t. The other part is when I did or do notice a bit I would be and tend to be dismissive of my discomfort as I must not be a wuzz. That is still there a bit. I can feel shame about causing a fuss and having to back out of things. So when people point out to me, and quite a few do now, that I have issues, like needing to breathe more often when talking, I appreciate it, as it may become a chance for me to learn to recognise my own signs. But we are all different.

[RD23 in reply to Wheezycat]

We are, I know I sound really whiny and I grateful, I’m just struggling at the moment after being bad. It’s taken it’s toll on me physically, mentally and emotionally.

[Wheezycat in reply to RD23]

Oh, sorry, I wasn’t trying to upbraid you! Not at all! Just that we are different. But that place when you can’t cope with advice and expressed concern, yes, I know that one as well, just not at present around asthma issues. Dare I say it, ........do look after yourself, whatever 5hat means for you.........

[RD23 in reply to Wheezycat]

Bless you, thank you. I’m definitely in that place at the moment and struggling which is annoying me because I’m not usually like that. As I said to my mum the other day, I’m doing my own head in!

[johnsmith]

You say: "no logical explanation other than all my triggers just add up". This suggests that you have gone above the breathing systems stress breakdown point. Nice phrase "stress breakdown point". The question is how I prevent myself going over the stress breakdown point? Not an easy question to answer. The answer lies in investigating yourself.

There is a statement that is over 2000 years old. It is easier to see the spec of dust in someone else's eye than the plank in your own. We all need the help of other people to point out the errors we make in doing movement because it is impossible to see our own movement errors. An Alexander Teacher and McTimony chiropractor can help in this issue. A McTimony chiropractor can help loosen tight rib muscles. An Alexander Teacher can help with improving breathing and muscle control issues.

Meditation and mindfulness can help your observe yourself and help you spot the things that lead to breathing difficulties. There will be Buddhist groups near to you who can help you learn these techniques.

"forestsangha.org/teachings/...

"Meditation: A Way of Awakening" by Ajahn Sucitto is a very good book on meditation and mindfulness and it is a free download.

Hope I have been helpful

[RD23 in reply to johnsmith]

Thank you

[Tugun in reply to johnsmith]

Hi - I must admit that my chiropractor has helped release the tightness in my chest - not asthma/lung tightness - but because of all the stiffness and trouble breathing in a bad exacerbation, things get out of place and tight. He works with muscles, tendons and the bones.

[RD23 in reply to Tugun]

I’ll look into that, thank you. I see an osteopath to help with my shoulders as they tense up when I have an attack and feel like concrete! He does rib stretches with me but I’ll see if there’s anything that would help. I’m guessing it’s just muscle strain as a result of all the attacks.

[Tugun in reply to RD23]

Hi,

Sorry about the delay but just thought to add that my chiropractor is not the normal kind in that he does spend a lot of time working on tendons etc before he works on the spine or bones. He has been in it for many years and although he did the five year university course, he also learnt a lot from his father who worked as a chiropractor for over forty years.