Having bad nights with bad sob and nothing works except too much Pred. My doc and practice nurse aren't happy about it but then neither am I so that makes three of us. Last night I nearly called the ambo (what the Aussies call it) to go to A&E and it was only the thought of a A&E in winter in the early hours that stopped me. That and the fact that the prednisone finally kicked in.
Why are our hospitals 'in crisis'? We're bombarded every day with headlines about this. Maybe Chomsky's words tell us what's really going on here. Sinister doesn't begin to describe what's going down.
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notlocal
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Your SOB can be controlled by you. Bed is certainly the worse place to control SOB....your posture is wrong and being laid down tells the body you are ready to rest and that it can cut back on energy requirements. Need to get your self sat upright or leaning over something with your arms hanging free or else stood up leaning gently on something...I use the wash basin but make sure t is well supported....you don't want that landing on your toes. Now the next stage will rescue you in any situation...believe me. No need for meds, ventolin or anything else. Gently breath through our nose....not too deep, just comfortably, hold it for a count of 2, and then gently breath out through pursed lips...as though you are whistling. Do this three r four times then breath in a little bit deeper but tis time, when you exhale try to extend the time every exhale...still using pursed lips. If you are having a panic attack, forget the brown paper bag routine just in your throat make a noise as you breath out. No continue breathing in, still quite gently but try to extend your exhale every time. Keep making the noise on exhale sort of rouses your body and it sort of clicks onto his idea ad joins in, making it almost automatic. What you are doing is one of the most effective breathing control methods available to you. By breathing out through those pursed lips longer each time, you are clearing out all the old, useless air that has become trapped in your lungs while you have been shallow breathing. Another great thing about this for me, is I make the noise long enough and loud enough, it wakes her indoors and she makes m a cup of tea.
Please give it a try. I learnt this at PR and believe me it is a miracle worker. I can use my oxymeter and get a reading of 82/84 but within ten breaths like this I am up to 91/92. I used a container of ventolin a week at one time....now I only have one or two applications a week
Hi Cornish Brian, I too find pursed lip breathing very helpful, but it may not work for everyone especially in an emergency, so medication could be a lifesaver.
I have a chest infection, so I need extra steroids and ABs as well as my bronchodilator to hand.
I have my rescue pack too of steroids and anti B...just finished taking a course but they are not breathing control. I have done PR twice now but last year I collapsed at home. My wife called the emergency service and a paramedic and ambulance turned up almost at the same time. |Two of them rigged me to the various machines but the third knelt next to me and kept saying, watch what I'm doing Brian, watch and copy......My blood pressure was through the roof and my breathing was fairly chaotic...I felt as though I was on dry ground.....but I eventually through all the noise, managed to concentrate on the paramedic....I can tell you, she was so pretty and her eyes.....never mind....got me going then, but she was. Now that lady in green and fluorescence stripes, did just that. No oxygen, no ventolin, no nebuliser....no nothing but just in through the nose and out through pursed lips. The system helps you to return to diaphragm breathing because before that you are only breathing with your "fight or flight" system. Once you return to diaphragm breathing, you will find that your lung capacity has been reduced because you haven't exhaled the used air......pursed lips have been proved to be the most effective way of emptying your lungs. Anyway, this vision of loveliness in green, brought me back from where I was to where I should have been. Afterwards, she said the other reason it works so well, is that it gives you a feeling of being in control and the "panic" element disappears. I agree that medication has it's place but if you are seriously gasping for air, why inhale a medicine that wont reach the lungs? When I used a Ventolin for breathing control, one tip I did learn. You are generally allowed two puffs for each application. So if you are very short of breath, take one puff as shown and then a couple of breathing control breaths and a few minutes later, take the second puff. This way, the first puff ahs had chance to work and open up the airways to allow the second puff to be more effective.
I am glad you managed to avoid the dreaded hospital and hope you are feeling better soon. Your post certainly made me think as had never really thought about the mechanics of privatisation. It is right though this is exactly what happens! x
the reason our hospitals are overcrowded is because they have knocked down all the old hospitals & replaced them with one allegedly 'centre of excellence'. In my town our population has quadrupled since my youth yet the number of hospital beds has diminshed by a good third. Also we now have dozens of administrators running hospitals so we can't afford Doctors, nurses or beds because the Adminisrators have to be paid mega salaries for stuffing up the system!!! The biggest reason is because we have far too many people living in this country now without the infrastructure to support them!
The infrastructure would be there if the planning and investment were there, but the government has no intention of investing in the future, only in short term profits for their friends in the City.
They would have you believe (Nigel Farrago of lies etc) that it's too many people in the country because it suits their political agenda. If you believe that then you are being sold a pup. It's sheer underfunding and it's deliberate.
I'm afraid I disagree with you notlocal in some ways. I first went into hospital for surgery in 1972 my last surgery was in 2012 when I had a brain aneurysm plugged with platignum, in between I've had 8 major ops & 20 odd minor so I have seen the NHS first hand for over 40 years & I've watched it change & not in a good way. I don't need Nigel Farage or any other MP to tell me there are too many people as I've lived in the same town since I was born & watched it get more & more overcrowded with more & more flats being built in what were back gardens & large houses using less & less infrastructure in place, the roads gridlocked at certain times of the day. You might be right, there isn't enough money in the NHS but thats because a lot of it is wasted on the Administrators. What sense is there in closing down the eye clinic for a day cancelling dozens of appointments whilst they carry out an audit, I have glaucoma & got my appointment put back by over a month for this audit, if I go blind their audit will cost them a lot more money taking care of me & the others who were neglected for this!! I also worked for the Dept of the Environment years ago so have first hand knowledge of Government, none of it good.
I'm sorry and I apologise. I thought I detected a UKIP "too many foreigners" there. Overpopulation and growth though is another issue and none of us are exempt from that.
Hi Notlocal, hope you feel better this morning. Did not realise the Australian hospitals were in the same crisis as the NHS here in England. But glad you were put off the queueing last night.Your post sums it up quite neatly, sinister goings on.
I'm in England! I just like the word "ambo" for ambulance. I'm a member of a NZ copd FB page and I pick up the vocab No, my post was all about English hospitals.
Thanks for explaining I mistook what you were meaning. I have a post running on another Hu site about the state of the British NHS, it is a sad tale of woe mainly due to financial issues I think Notlocal , and that is of course due to how the politicians manage what resources they have I am afraid. No help to us though when we are ill unexpectedly is it ??
As I said on Twitter after question time on BBC1,it is Tory ideology that is destroying our marvellous NHS.Thatcher tried but failed.If they get back in they will sell it off at a loss just like the Post Office.They are evil!
Well this bunch has already privatized about 70% of the NHS by the back door and believe me if they get in again the whole of the NHS will be up for grab by their friends in ATOS etc. - God help us all then - ever since Thatcher everything once owned by the people of this country has been up for sale one way or another and usually (as with Royal Mail) at knock down prices - criminal.........
I don't really know about being silly or no. I am severe COPD and looks like I am heading up or down a category, verging on end time care. I no longer use oxygen and although I have a nebuliser, I only use it with saline solution when I have an infection to ease loosening mucus. Ventolin has one little draw back....addiction. You have become ventolin dependant...As I have said before, when I was a work, a ventolin inhaler wouldn't last me more that three days...I had to have it all the time. That was three years ago. I had to retire from work and was looking at a very short retirement, then the wooden overcoat. After being retired four months, I was invited onto a PR course....doing chair based exercise. Within four sessions, I was using the gym equipment along with the others and after another week, I even attended the gym without my dummy...Ventolin inhaler. The difference....the second session, we were taught breathing control...as I have out lined to you in my answer to your post. The physioterrorist, seeing me pumping Ventolin in for all I was worth, spent half an hour with me, going from one exercise to another, showing me how to control my breathing before, during and after exercise. I use it to get ustairs, five good breaths in before I attempt going up. Put my foot on the top stair and as I raise myself up, breath in through my nose and then when my other foot lands on the step, breath out through pursed lips....no stair lift at the top end of severe....not bad going. No oxygen. Again as I said before, SATS 84 to Sats 92 in six or seven good puffs after a couple of shallow breaths to get me going. In the morning, breathing control and then downstairs, into my chair for a cuppa and then my family knows comes ME time. That involves a bit of my favourite music, medications taken leisurely and mouth rinsed out. Next, sit back, sit up right, arms comfy and ten minutes of breathing control. These periods before and after meds are important. Spiriva, Salbutomol etc, all require you to breath in through your mouth and so then I have to go back to correct it. Breathing in through the nose, air conditions the air so cold or warm air doesn't hit your throat...your nose has hundreds of bloody vessels to achieve that. Out through pursed lips so that you do empty you lungs. I presume by your reply that you have not been on a PR course. Your reply sort of upset me for a minute. When I worked , I was a vehicle technician and when ever I went out, there was always someone who was having problems with his car, spend hours of my leisure time telling me the symptoms etc, how it does it, when it does it...when all I wanted to do was have some social time with my wife. After listening to everything, I would say ahat I thought y=the problem was and that it was a particular problem on their make and model of car. Then they would say " Oh, no. It isn't that...it's got to be...." and I used to think, if you don't want help and advice , don't ask or at least be gracious enough to try it and not half hearted.. a proper try. Predisinone is a steroid...it doesn't just kick in...it builds up in your body to assist it. Perhaps if you are self medicating with the wrong medications, you may be causing your own SOB. It is also a drug that most of us with COPD dread.. because of the numerous rather nasty side effects from it and the problems it causes long term....brittle bones being one of the nicer side effects. I can understand your health professionals being alarmed.
Aren't we all flibberti, aren't we all. With our condition it's always dodgy. But we'd like to keep it good for those who come after. Very concise appraisal btw. I share all that you say.
When I said I was upset, it was only a wobble. You upset me more when in your reply you put about predisinole....that is just too silly for words. I can't find it now so you must have deleted it. If someone new to the site saw that, they might think it worth trying. I know that COPD is a hard thing to bear but it can be controlled and normalish life followed. Brittle bones is very, very nasty and extremely painful....in fact everything about that steroid is unpleasant but some of it is necessary. I can well imagine the horror of your health care professionals when you tell them that. A little learning is a very dangerous thing. I would suggest that you ask for the next PR course and get along to it and throw yourself into it with full enthusiasm....then you will have some knowledge of your situation.
One of the main problems with the Hospital Crisis - and it is a MAJOR CRISIS , is that the Millionaires "Running" this country under that Arch deceiver Milllionaire Cameron, is that they are completely out of touch with the ordinary folk BECAUSE of their colossal wealth and status. I have said before that even the MP who is supposedly representing my area , on asking him something about my local Hospital admitted he " WAS'NT SURE WHERE IT IS " - and why ? because he is a Millionaire and when he requires medical treatment = " GOES PRIVATE " - this says it all folks.......The shocking accounts we read about , such as an EIGHTY ONE year old lady left NINE HOURS ON A TROLLEY , because " No medical staff were available at that time " - if this had been Cameron's mother - you would see the fastest U TURN in policy regarding Hospitals in Political History .....On a lighter note, I read recently that if ANYONE could photograph Cameron in a NHS Hospital, in a General Ward IN BED - this picture would be worth £100,000 to any of the NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS .My personal opinion is that this Millionaire Prime Minister would'nt be seen DEAD in a NHS Hospital Ward , - and there is the problem .. in a few months time we all have the opportunity to change all this .....its OUR HEALTH , its OUR CHOICE .......
You are so right to worry, until we get rid of 2 thirds of the admin in hospital & put more doctors & old fashioned nurses in places, heaven help you if you're ill. My Doctor has to send a referral through to a place in Colchester for those admin/office bods decide if you actually need to see a specialist or not. My GP has only been working as a GP for around 30 years & obviously doesn't have a clue what she's doing............
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No, my post was all about English hospitals.
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