Well, anyway, let's get started.
Again and again: you don't have to apply my experience to yourself unless you speak to your doctor and get approved, because your condition and age may be quite different.
I am 70, I am 24/7 on oxygen, and last few months am afraid to go outside.
The first topic I promised is this:
1. How to breath in general, and how to breath when you have a lungs-collapsing attack.
Step-by-step, after many tests I ran by myself and had to go through in hospitals, I found that two things help me in different situations:
a) When and if I am in relatively "normal" condition:
In general, I have to accustom myself to an infrequent, but deep breathing.
These are important details:
I have to exhale as much as possible so that I feel how my bronchi and my belly muscles are straining. This helps not only to exhale CO2(carbon dioxide)from lungs, but also to "hitch" mucus from the depth of bronchi and trachea toward the throat.
After I exhale, I make a pause before inhaling.
When I inhale, I try to force the air go to the very depth of my lungs by straining my belly muscles so that they strain the diaphragm. When I succeed, I feel that the air reached to bottom of my lungs. Then the same cycle starts again.
(Sorry, if my terminology is laughable; your doctor will certainly clarify to you my description.)
b) When I have a temporary increased, acute breathing problem that can be overcome personally, without emergency hospitalization:
I usually experience such a moment in two "versions" - 1) caused by mucus clogging (occlusion); 2) caused by anything else - excessive movement, nervousness or a nervous stress, or even something unknown.
When I feel such a mucus-occlusion moment may come soon, but not started yet, I use a pocket inhaler with Albuterol: it may suspend or even completely prevent (at least temporary) the attack.
But if the attack already started, I do this:
a) I stand and lean on a low table or my walker or anything else so that I stay slant (preferably with my head as low as possible), easing the mucus move.
b) I try to breath as superficial and as rare as I possibly can;
c) I slap by my palm and flap by my fist on my breast (chest) as strong as I can stand;
d) If there is somebody - relatives or friends - around, I ask that person to do the same on my back (official home-aids are usually not allowed to do so, mostly because the provider agencies care much more about avoiding any possible responsibilities than about the life-threatening condition of their patient.)
e) Between flapping, I try to cough out the mucus by a very special kind of coughing:
It's like pumping up a bicycle tire with a hand pump: sharp and short movements from the bottom of my lungs.
When eventually the mucus approaches the throat, it's very important to breath through nose so that the mucus isn't pushed back.
Such moments are usually very scary, so I try to force myself not to panic; I even use at these moments to calm myself down, "hypnotizing" myself by repeating in my mind's eye: "it's OK if I die, it's OK if I die..."
But it's very important to keep doing what I just described.
I know I have to be very strong to overcome the moment when the mucus is ALMOST in the throat, but still inside and clogging the airways. "Keep the cool head, don't lose pluckiness," I command myself.
Eventually, the mucus clot jumps out of my mouth, and I get relieved.
Then I try to return to my "normal" breathing that I described earlier.
Please let me know if you want me to continue.
And sorry for my clumsy English.
Post edited by: ConstIva, at: 05/11/2012 12:25 PM
I'm always looking for real experience information because let's face it - the Doctors don't have to live with this @#$% every day like we do!
