Guest guest Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Hi Elaine, Welcome to the group! I'm sorry to hear that you are dealing with a lot right now, with your husband being in hospital and your own health problems. Perhaps your husband's doctor could intervene about the smoking situation. He could address this concern with your husband's family and tell them how detrimental passive smoking is to his lung condition. Hopefully, if the message comes from the doctor, it will be taken more seriously. Does your hubby do postural drainage to help clear the mucus from his lungs? Unfortunately, mucus production is one of the symptoms of bronchiectasis. In order to keep infections at bay, we must clear the mucus from the lungs at regular intervals. I find that if I do postural drainage at home, 2-3 times daily, I do not cough when I go out. Your hubby could have a large box of tissues handy for when he needs to cough, instead of carrying a container around. I hope your husband's health improves, and he is home from the hospital soon. Please keep in touch. Take care! Love Bunny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Hello bunny thanks for your email. I know he has had physio after a hernia op years ago and I have tried to help him with the same of cupped hands on back,but not having been shown the correct technique, I wasn't wondefully sucessful, apart from first thing in mornings, he isnt too bad, unless he gets a chest infection and contact with smoke, the more the worst, also i have noticed he is worse after drinking alcohol, could this too be a factor in adding to his mucus production? it was mentioned to his family years ago, when another fmaily memeber was in hospital about avoidance of smoke for asthmatics was of high imprtance, but maybe as you say they need to be told they need to stop smoking in front of their brother, for them to understand. i wil see if i can have a word with one of the hospital doctors, because I know if he/she tells his mother, she will most defently pass it to them, as she always has to interfer and then gets upset when people tell her its not her business, or gets moody if she doesn't get what she expects. Like when he was admitted and they were filling in next of kin records, she expected to be put and informed 1st!! and got a 'moody on' when the doctor informed her that his wife was classed as 1st next of kin but she could be listed as 2nd, she got a moody on again when she rang the hosipital hoping to glean info of how his first night went and only got told he had a comfortable night (you see I realised 6am as he had returned home form attempting to goto work an hour early that morning, realsing it was a bit more than just mild heat stroke, pinched the skin on the back if his hand and it staied their, as he was cleanry with it, helped him to drink a glass over water slowly, since with my condition my body temp thermostate is way out of alignment and it often causes bad night and day sweats when it isn't working corectly, so I lose alot of fluid and have to take in a god 3ltrs a day, or risk dihydration myself and know what the signs are only too well and normally a glass or to of water fixes it, but realised in his case not going to work, so got the dr out to see him, who told me to mop his forhead with a damp flannel every so often and the ambulance woudl be here within an hour, so didn't even think it was that bad after all, but still wasn't happy the dr never gave him anything for his temp, which ended up about 104+ heart rate over 130, blood pressure low and I managed through my own cooling techniques I use to help me like wrapping cold paper towels around your wrists, helps reduce temp quickly, but not overly quick, so when ambulance arrive 20 minutes after doc rang them, I was pleased to see it, as i was on the verge of dialing 999 (uk's emergancy number for those that were unsure), because he was getting so he didn't even know me :-(. thankfully dispite the state of his lungs, they were happy to report he had a good strong heart, which supprised them too and he didn't need surgery either and was lucky it was caught as soon at it had been. i was also praised for quick thinking etc. But it was only 3 days ago he was told that he was likely to have this condition since childhood, as i asked about what she meant aobut 'clubbed fingers' so she looked at mine to compare them with and asked me if i had rhumatoid arthritis due to my severe nail ridges, close its the fibro, although not arthritis is affects the mouscles not the joints, but the pain is like having arthritis all over. So automatically realised it was his passive smoking childhood and asthma the cause of his lung state and also found out his abnormal retention of baby teeth and his rotting off of many adult teeth before they have all emerged is due to the extent of his passive smoking as a child, well being in the same small louge with a 15-20 an evening or their abouts smoker for about 30 years, plus more weekends as his father didn't work weekend. i to have the cough in the mornings and have to often spit up small amounts of green or yellow stuff, even though I haven't got an infection and have alot of nasel tube muscus too and tiny white lumpy looking things of smelly stuff, that seem to come up from lungs area, odd times have coughed specks of blood, even though i haven't had a bad cough, but know looking at the websites if i had this, I would be much worse and of ourse do hope that by avoiding passive smoking as much as possible, with a pretty good set of lungs, will avoid this nasty lung problem. I feel sorry for my hubby, as his condition isn't his doing/isn't his fault, ie he hasn't smoked in his life, he had it by the passive smoking he endured all his life, until i got him away form much of it, although he did once every so often go play dominoes with his father and a team and he has a number of trophies as a winner. but his family and more so at times his mother and his 2 smoking sisters still seems to try to blame the animals for every infecting, he or I get, even if they are the very ones that passed it onto us!! it doesn't matter that one of his otherwise very healthy hardly ever getting bugs brother in law, has always some bug these days caught off of his toddlers, because they are at preschool/nursery and pick up every bug going, so pass it to their father, then it gets around the family. Would you say Bunny is was also a sensible idea to ban sick people from our home too (ie those with coughs, colds) for good not just until his immune system gets up and runing around, once he is home ofmr hospital. ok you can't stay away totally form people wiht bugs, but at least if no one comes to the house carryng a bug, then its protecting us both hear at least. strange as it might seem, although a nursing friend of mind sais its because ifi get a bug, I observe high hygiene standards, in hope that i can prevent him catching a bug I have and 8 out of 10 times I manage to keep a belly bug, cold or cough infection away from him. take care and thnaks agian for your advice, will look into that postural drainage you mention too. anything to try to ease his lot. Elaine > Hi Elaine, > > Welcome to the group! I'm sorry to hear that you are dealing with a lot > right now, with your husband being in hospital and your own health > problems. Perhaps your husband's doctor could intervene about the > smoking situation. He could address this concern with your husband's > family and tell them how detrimental passive smoking is to his lung > condition. Hopefully, if the message comes from the doctor, it will be > taken more seriously. > > Does your hubby do postural drainage to help clear the mucus from his > lungs? Unfortunately, mucus production is one of the symptoms of > bronchiectasis. In order to keep infections at bay, we must clear the > mucus from the lungs at regular intervals. I find that if I do postural > drainage at home, 2-3 times daily, I do not cough when I go out. Your > hubby could have a large box of tissues handy for when he needs to > cough, instead of carrying a container around. > > I hope your husband's health improves, and he is home from the hospital > soon. Please keep in touch. > > Take care! > Love Bunny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2004 Report Share Posted September 5, 2004 >can anyone tell me if it is possible reasoning with people like this? maybe you can tell me I am being too caring of their feelings in this, as a few friends say I am, but its my nature and typical of a fibromyalgia fighters attitude to helping people and causing least frition, as frition, leads to worsing of our own symptoms, but them putting up in silence with things does the same. > >also one more question, how is the best way to help him cope with his condition better, as he hates 'coughing up' although he has been told to 'spit it out' where ever he is not swallow it, but he feels thats dirty and doesn't want to carry a container around, just incase it comes open or people see that and feel disgusted about its contense, as you can't clean it every 5 minutes, as you might not be near somewhere suitable to clean it out. > > Elaine Welcome to the board, Elaine! My father continued to smoke throughout my childhood around me, even though my doctors told him not to. Now I am in my own home and do not permit him to smoke in my house. He has only visited me here once. (I don't let him drink here, either. Not sure which addiction is keeping him from coming back.) As for your hubby's coughing it all up...well, he has to. Unless he likes the idea of pneumonia. Or feeling nausous, which is what happens when i swallow it and it goes into my stomach. Has his doctor explained to him and you about postural drainage? If not, let me know and I will explain it as best as I can. He needs to drink a lot of water- I typically drink between two and three liters every day, more when it's hot and I am sweating a lot. It thins out the mucus he coughs up, which will make it easier to cough up. I always carry tissues around, and if I have to cough stuff up, I can disguise it so it looks like I am just blowing my nose. I then throw the tissue away. Carry a container around? Eiuw... Karin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2004 Report Share Posted September 5, 2004 Hi, again, I'll try to answer your questions here... > Well he rang me a few minutes ago and I have told him the news about the new med condition he was dx'd with friday and told him all the sites I I have visited all say to avoid passive smokng, but not one of the 40 odd sites I found and looked at didn't mention anything about avoiding pets. I always had pets as a kid. I have no animal allergies. I had dogs, hamsters, rabbits, gerbils, birds (parakeets), mice, fish, and guinea pigs. I never had a problem with any of them. > > I think careful looking after of his lungs, we might be able to stop it progressing, as it might with passive smoking aggrivation would do. My lungs have been pretty stable over the last 15 years, and I think some of that is because I have zero tolerance for smoke around me. I don't allow it in my home. I don't go places that allow it. > > But he has the typical club fingers and also has coughed up alot of blood at one point, so much so we got him to A & E for the hospital energancvy team to assess him, they said it was a broken blood vessel in his lungs, but it lasted ages (hours) but I suppose with flem and saliva it looked more. he does cough up blood often when he has a bad chest infection. Occasionally, when I am really sick, I'll cough up a little blood, too. Yes, it's from breaking a blood vessel from coughing. It's scary, but it does happen. > > Would him having this condition be the reason why he gets a cold, cough and its straight to his lungs??. Yes, a big part of it. Karin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.