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Bending over

Posted , 6 users are following.

ida44484
ida44484

Both Tabatha, Elizabeth and Russ have talked about bending over to clear our lungs and I was hoping to get some more feedback on this subject.

I normally go on my knees and elbows and do some slow very deep breaths and it often helps. However, I'm trying to switch to Tabatha's method of standing up and bending over. However, it doesn't seem to work as well.

I would like to be less reliant on being on the floor in a public restroom ha, ha.

Anyways, if anybody has any experience with these two methods, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks,

Ida

1 like, 10 replies

10 Replies

  • tabatha84296
    tabatha84296 ida44484

    Posted

    Hi, Ida,  Russell has commented to me I think in a private msg that I'm very funny.  I think he is very funny to think that.

    I crack him up sometimes, he says.

    But right now you are cracking ME up with the image of you on your hands and knees in a public restroom.  Surely Russell is having a good day today!!!

    Why do I never have to bring up mucous in a public restroom??  Never has had to happen yet.  Before I leave the house I normally take my usual 600 mg and if it's time for my inhaler or almost time i'll do that too and i'll take the Spiriva with me as i can do that anywhere.  If you're on that it helps.   I sometimes have to clear mucous in the car!!!!!  It clears itself; I don't have to do much.  That's more imagineable than in the restroom etc.

    However, all that being said, I just came back from my Pulmonologist who was in worse shape than me hacking and coughing with allergies.  He listened to my lungs and said 'not bad'.  I asked him if he could hear the mucous which I know I had today and he said 'a little bit'.  I said what does it sound like?  He said 'like velcro being ripped apart'.  He said he can hear where the bronchiectasis is with the stethoscope (I didn't know that - I thought u had to have a CT scan to even know u had it). And I mentioned that I talk to people on a BX forum and practically all of them are on Azithromycin and this time he said 'they must be bad'.  I mentioned that we had talked before about too many people on antibiotics and he agreed but he said 'if you're bad enough you need it'.  So little by little I get the whole story by persevering.

    I still think it's hard to believe that everyone is 'that bad'.  But I was glad to hear I was not.  I'm glad my doctor does not just put everyone on the drug regardless. And I hope I won't get that bad.  And yesterday was probably just a day I had a lot of mucous and I'd been getting it up by turning positions in bed before I got up so when I tried your head below the waist position it was ready.  Ha ha

    I don't blame u for not wanting to get down on your hands and knees as it's not easy to do as we get older.

    Tabatha

     

    • ida44484
      ida44484 tabatha84296

      Posted

      Hi Tabatha,

      Glad you are doing so well and thanks for sharing your doctor visit experience. It's good to hear what others' doctors are saying, to get a different opinion/perspective. I agree with staying off the antibiotics, but sometimes we just don't have a choice, and I'm so glad that they are invented or we would be much worse off lol.

      I'm guessing that your bx is located in the upper part of your lung, since you have such an easy time clearing your mucus.

      Take care and thanks for your feedback,

      Ida

  • marion49836
    marion49836 ida44484

    Posted

    Hello Ida

    I have tried the bending over and i find that it does'nt seem to work for me, but if i am bending over to pick something up it does work must be all in the mind   if I am not expecting it, it then seems to work.  i have also trie the doggie one, (most unlady like)

    it does seem to work though   The best one for me is lying on my side and takeing deep breaths for a count of four rest then another 4 breaths and then huff it up.  also if I stand over the handbasin i can get rid of it.  All very tiresome but neccessary.  Has anyone out there taken spiriva which is supposed to help with excess phlegm an breathing, `i have been taking it for 3 weeks and not quite sure if it is helping or not

    • tabatha84296
      tabatha84296 marion49836

      Posted

      Marion, I tried Spiriva many years ago and didn't find any difference at all to my asthma.  Then about two years ago I was put on it again and this time I noticed a big difference.  I did ask if there was a special time to take it like before any other inhaler or when u wake up or when?  I was told it does not matter when u take it but do it the same time every day.  So with my weird schedule I just happento take it at 12:30 pm or 1:30 and I do my Symbicort inhaler always at 2:30pm. This is not a specially recommended time at all; they probably prefer we do that one at 8 am and 8 pm but I sleep late and do vitamins in the morning so it was easier for me at 2:30.   When I did the spiriva I noticed it dried my mouth up badly instantly, but I also noticed that my wheezing symptoms were less. Then when I added the Symbicort at 2:30 it really make me 100% better with my breathing.

      The Spiriva was like an additional touch.  You do not have to rinse out after doing it but I think it was on their insert that I read to rinse out to avoid dryness so I always do now and the dry mouth is not there like it was.  (Now, I do have very dry mouth problems but I know it can't be all from the Spiriva because I had it before I started that; but I no longer have instant dry mouth right when I take the Spiriva).

      SO, if you are really not feeling any difference whatsover with wheezing like symptoms I would tell your doctor and he may let you get off it as it's very expensive.  My doctor just wrote on the chart that I couldn't tolerate it. I saw that word a lot in my records and it bothered me because I can tolerate anything but I think to a doctor that means that it didn't do you any good or you noticed no results etc.  And then like I did you might want to try it again at some later time.  I don't think there is any point wasting money or the insurance co's money if you really don't feel anything.

      A note here:  sometimes I might forget to do my Symbicort inhaler which is a steroid; I might not be home etc.  and the Spiriva actually carries me thru to the time my night time Symbicort is due.  So it is sort of taking the place of the steroid inhaler, that's how much effect I get from it.  Now that you've read this, Marion, try to take special attention to what u feel - like the dryness - and do u breathe better even a little bit?  Maybe change the time you take it compared to other drugs/inhalers etc.

      Tabatha

    • marion49836
      marion49836 tabatha84296

      Posted

      Good Morning Ida

      Thanks for your reply, it was very interesting to read about your experience with Spiriva.I am on the fourth week of taking it and have not felt any difference except on one day when I forgot to take it in the morning so I took it in the evening, I felt so much better the following day, as my breathing is worst in the morning. So it would appear that the time to take the spiriva is all important.  I don't suffer from dry mouth as I always drink a lot of water anyway.

      Best wishes

      Marion

    • tabatha84296
      tabatha84296 marion49836

      Posted

      Hi Marion, I'm happy you got something out of my writing.  sometimes i think i write too much and bore everyone but once in a while a gem creeps out of it.  What you say indicates to me that in your case it's not an instant fix but takes a few hours to work.  Hope that keeps up for you.

      I usually see a difference pretty quick.

      When u changed time I hope u remembered to do it that same time the next day and so on.  the most difficult thing I find is to remember what time you DID take it the day before and getting older (if you are) my memory at least is not too great when it comes to pill taking.  Like it's time for my Symbicort right now AND I'VE FORGOTTEN MY SPIRIVA! I get doing things on lthe computer and get all wrapped up.

      RE the dry mouth::::  I'm assuming then that I got the dry mouth when doing the Spiriva BECAUSE I had a dry mouth problem initially and it just exacerabated it.

      I have a new Primary doctor i'm going to next week and I'll see what he says about it.

      Tabatha (not Ida)

      Tabatha

  • Gill200
    Gill200 ida44484

    Posted

    Hi

    There are plenty of websites giving instruction on postural drainage. Perhaps if you carried these out correctly at home before going to work, you wouldn't need to do it during the day. I got instruction from a physiotherapist and it really did help.

    • ida44484
      ida44484 Gill200

      Posted

      I'm in the States, so we don't get access to a physiotherapist. I wish we did.

      Anyways, thanks for your reply.

      Ida

  • elizabeth49611
    elizabeth49611 ida44484

    Posted

    I agree with Marion.  Sometimes when I try to cough it up, It's difficult.  But when I'm, for instance, working in the flower garden and bending over, I cough up a lot very easily.

    I think it the combo of being active to loosen the mucus and then bending over that helps bring it up.

    One more reason to stay as active as you can, Beth

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