Bronchiolitis

[anton23]

Hi I've got bronchiolitis I've had for many year and ruimatoid athritis. I also get alot of rib pain ,i find it hard to tall if iv got an chest infection ,and you don't no what to do for the best because of the rib pain and chest tight does any body else have this problems

[Katinka46]

I do have your symptoms and a strong suspicion that I have the condition but I have yet to have a diagnosis confirmed. If you look at my profile you will see the problem. My understanding of the chest pain and the weird discomfort of feeling pressure against the inside of my rib cage is that it is caused by hyperinflation which is the result of air trapping. Does this make sense for you? And I believe it is a condition that can be caused by RA? Has this been mentioned to you?

Would love to continue the discussion. There's not much known about it. (P.S. I assume you have Obliterative Bronchiolitis?)

All best wishes

Kate xxx

[Hidden]

Hi anton, I don't know much about ur illness to be fair, but chest pains could also be down to pleurisy, quite common, easy to treat but awful when u have it. Hope u feel better soon xx Sonia xx

[peege]

Hello Anton, nice to see you and welcome back.

I wish I had words of wisdom to offer. Sadly I haven't. What does your doctor say? I often get a pleural pain before, during &/or after an infection. I don't know why but it's always the same patch where I've had pleurisy before.

I believe when people really suffer with pleural pain they can stick the membranes together to stop the dry rubbing, one against the other .

I hope you find some answers. Peege

[anton23 in reply to peege]

Hello peege i seen the doctor friaday he said chest sounds clear he think the rib pain is the cartridges in my rib cage do to my RA

or it could be peural pain what you said

Anton

[Katinka46]

Hi Anton. I assume that your symptoms are constant? That you have them all the time and have more or less since your diagnosis. In this case it is not so likely to be an infection. There would be other signs: cough, coughing stuff up, fever, sweating etc.

Is your GP helpful?

K x

[anton23 in reply to Katinka46]

Hi kate i have theirs symptom alot not all the time i always cough up gonk every day so i do chest clerence twice aday and keep a eye on the colour ,is my gp help ful ,well sometimes it acording who you see you see diffrent doctors all the time which don't like i find the nurse more under standing .I seen the doctor friday said chest sounded clear .Is your docter helpful ?

Tony x

[Katinka46]

Hi Anton. Patchy. Very long story. It has taken five and half years since the PEs because a consultant said there was nothing wrong with my lungs. And my GP believed him. I think he now accepts there is a complex mix of very unusual things going on: a disease in my blood vessels and also in the airways.

If you are coughing up gunk it doesn't sound quite right. Do you have COPD as well? I know that technically Ob Bronchiolitis is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease but it is not COPD as we know it.

I don't cough anything up I had one infection, in five years. And then I was coughing up stuff that was dark red, bright red and lurid green.

You don't need to know that. Sorry!

Let us know how things go.

K x

[anton23 in reply to Katinka46]

Hi kate as far as i no i havent got COPD i ask next time i see somebody. iv had ruimatoid athritis when i was 20 then i got colitis which effected my lungs at 36 with bronchiolitis and i used to cough up stuff then. i had pneumonia 4 years ago which damaged my right lung a lot and gives me lot of problems which does get me down

i let you no how i get on

x

[DaleyWaley]

I have not been formally diagnosed with obliterative bronchiolitis, but that is what has been suggested. My FEV1/FVC hovers around 60-65%, and has been relatively constant for a couple of years, although my vital capacity has diminished slightly. I always assume that I have COPD as the lung function does not improve upon inhaler or oral steroidal therapy. I have ankylosing spondylitis which has similar manifestations, in terms of chest discomfort, to those encountered by sufferers of RA. Yes, I do have constant discomfort in the chest from the moment I wake up every day, and my heart is now having to work overtime to compensate for the loss of lung function. Indeed, my resting heart rate is rarely below 100bpm, and climbing stairs or gradual inclines causes an accelerated heart rate and increased pain in the chest. A lot of my chest pain is, apparently, due to restriction of the rib cage, caused by the AS, but the consultants are all non-committal in terms of the prognosis, even though it has been mooted that obliterative bronchiolitis is probable in my case.

[Katinka46]

Hi DaleyWaley. All interesting stuff. OB is usually triggered by an event that causes injury to the lower respiratory tract and the obstructive pattern happens much more suddenly than classic COPD. Are you aware of such an event? OB does not respond to bronchodilators or steroids. So that fits as well. Does AS cause OB, possibly in the same way that RA does? It is such an unusual condition that most doctors, even pulmonary consultants, may not know much. The prognosis for OB is not good but the statistics around that are pulled down by the group of patients who get it after lung transplants and for them it is pretty poor. I am in contact with a man who was diagnosed 9 years ago and seems to be stable. He can still do most of the things he wants to.

Breathtakers on the HU site is for OB patients but it seems to concentrate on children and the site is very sleepy.

Please let us know how things go

All the best

Kate x

[scorpiolass]

Hi Anton, I have mixed COPD comprising Bronchiolitis, mild emphesema and long term Asthma. When I have an infection i get paiful areas in my chest and ribs. Other than it is a desease of the small airways my Consultant didn't say what type it was

Allthough I have had asthma since childhood, or at least a frail chest , I was diagnosed with Copd in 2004. Now the frequent infections are under control my Fev has improved to moderate, no longer severe. I had a lung cancer removed in 2014. My copd & asthma is stable , maintained on Singulair, Symbercort, Spireva, carbocysteine . Excaccerbations are treated with Azithromycin & oral steroids.Salbutamol as required. Med were reviewed in August, no suggestion about not needing steroids, so I don't know what this might be about. Hope you feel better soon. X

[DaleyWaley]

Thank you Katinka. I, too, have read several case studies associated with post-transplant, obliterative bronchiolitis, but I can think of no event that triggered this; I had a couple of lengthy chest infections in the period from December 2013 - March 2014, and when on holiday in Cornwall in April 2014, I suddenly hit an imaginary "brick wall"; all I was doing was walking up a slight hill; since then, SOB has become a more prevalent issue, and I am about to be retired from teaching before the age of 50 (I hope!). I also struggle with speech; the voice is very creaky, and I get breathess and dry up very quickly; indeed, sometimes I wake up and I can barely pull my lips apart to gulp for air as I produce very little natural saliva. I don'e know whether this is another common side-effect of COPD or OB.