Bronchitis taking weeks to clear

I got a nebulizer which helped enourmously.

I may ask about the nebulizer.

I have no help I'm afraid, just sympathy for you.

I'm getting chest infections every two to two and half month cycles, which are taking 1-4 weeks to get over.

The tiredness starts hitting then I go down hill so fast it's silly.

They've got me on Doxycycline now, it seems that this is the only one left I can take as I'm allergic to Clarithromycin and the mycin group.

I'm keeping hydrated, but can't seem to exercise because of the tiredness. When I hit a 'good' period, I love the play and take the dog for a walk. UK weather isn't awesome for us either lol

 

Hi Sally,

I have my own nebuliser, an Omron. I bought mine from my local pharmacy. She said because bx was a chronic condition she didn't have to charge me VAT. My consultant agreed to me getting one and prescribed the nebules. 

I've just become allergic/intolerant to penicillin which has narrowed the abs that can be prescribed when I'm poorly. 

I know a flare up takes time to clear up...mine mostly last 3 long months....

Hope yours clears soon 

Janet 

Hi Sally

I love my Philips Innospire Go which is very fast and quiet and use it daily with 7% saline solution.  

Please take a good probiotic after a round of antibiotics to put the good bacteria back.

Irene

I bought one at a medical supply store and my doctor prescribed albuterol to put in the nebulizer. It stopped my coughing. The one I bought was 50 dollars.

As a former sufferer of semi-annual bronchitis outbreaks (that seemed to clear up quickly as an illness, but had a long tail of sputum on my chest that I could cough up easily) and now diagnosed 4 years ago as having bronchiectasis, my take is as follows.

First it is not normal to have recurring chronic bronchitis as you describe. Your GP should be recommending you to a pulmonologist for assessment. The pulmonologist will undoubtedly review an X-Ray and may subsequently decide to seek a CT scan to determine whether you have any issues that an X-Ray would not detect - eg it is possible that you have developed bronchiectasis as sputum production and recurring infections fit the profile (don't panic - many people including me live reasonably normal lives with that disease and fitting the profile is not a slam dunk for having bronchiectasis).

Whether or not you have another disease like bronchitis emerging it may still be helpful to use the techniques of the bronchiectasis sufferer to help manage your lungs through your infection events. That is:

Daily lung excercises to bring up and cough out the sputum - a pulmonologist would be able to advise on methods and even refer you to a physiotherapist, but for many it is a simple matter of lying flat on your back and encouraging the gunk to rise up your lungs by some deep breathing followed by "huffing up" the sputum form the deeper recesses of your lungs and spitting it out

Daily exercise (you can have one or two days a week off) - at least half an hour of power walking (or at least more than a stroll!), swimming or biking - or whatever your body can develop into along that path by starting slowly

Obviously if you are a smoker then give up right away!

Eating a good diet - aiming towards an anti-inflammatory diet would be beneficial if you feel inflammation in your chest when you are having your infections. Otherwise most people know these days what is a good diet and what is bad, it's the discipline that's the problem

Get good sleep and to the extent you are able chill out and try to avoid stress. Easy enough for a financially well-resourced retiree living in paradise (Thailand) to say!

Some bronchX sufferers work hard to avoid situations where they might come into contact with people suffering chest infections. I live in a rural environment so that helps but I don't get too hung up on public transport/doctor's surgeries etc when it's necessary.

You should also take advice on whether you should be taking antibiotics for your outbreaks. For decades I suffered with what must have been chronic bronchitis and just took the advice of NHS online, which was (my take) bronchitis is usually viral so no point in consulting your doctor or taking antibiotics, just work through with it at home. I have reason now to think that advice was flawed.

Thanks for the comments Sally! Sorry - should have recognised we were in the bronchiectasis forum. For some reason I thought we were on the British Lung Fed forum, which I also look at and which is more generic, so when I saw the bronchistis comment I thought that was the limit of your problems!

BTW, I too had the same concerns about antibi resistance, which I revealed to my pulmonologist at Papworth Hospital (used to live in inner Kent - Bromley and Oprington - when working in the City, but now I go back to Cambridge where my sister lives for my annual monitoring). She's an experienced pulmo and bronchX specialist (Papworth specialist not my sister) so when she told me 'don't worry about that - there's many antibis you never see waiting in the wings if you run out of the popular ones' I stopped worrying. I'm on the 3-a-week prophylactic Azithromycin that so many bronchX sufferers now rely on. I nonetheless get frequent 'flags' of potential infection but I tend to ride those until I get something a bit stronger than one or two flags before reaching for the full-on course. That course is typically 2 weeks of amoxycillin/clavulanic acid; previously it was levafloxacin, but my local Thai pulmo recommended I switch when the levoflox wasn't killing off my infection 6 months ago (my Papworth pulmo told me on my visit last month that she recommends the amox/clav over levafloxacin as it is broader-based on the type of bugs bronchX patients typically pick up). I get about 2-3 infections a year that send me onto the 2 week course (and more than that of the mini infections that my immune system dispatches).

I am one of a minority of bronchX sufferers whose sputum never reveals results but I seem to recover quickly 9 times out of 10, even from the full-on infections, so that's not been an issue so far.

Wishing you wellness and happiness. As an artist you don't want to be getting too many or long ones of those tired/listless/de-motivating periods now, do you

Hi Sally,

I live in UK  and have had bronchiectasis since age 2 (I'm now 67). Suffered all my life from repeated chest infections (several each year and increasing with age); and of course repeated antibiotic courses. Got so worried about the large intake of antibiotics that - around 2  years ago - I did a lot of online research and  started taking Turmeric supplements. I take  2 x capsules daily of Real Herbs organic turmeric @ 745mg/capsule. Buy it online, the website is irealherbs but I think you can get it cheaper from other sites too. Anyway .... since starting this, I haven't had one single chest infection! - I can hardly believe  it, but my life has just been transformed and so easily. I hope this helps -     any questions,  just shout! Kind regards. Alison 

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