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Over the past 5 years, could be more, I have been getting at least one serious chest infection everry year. With mathematical precision, I get bronchitis between Thxgiving and Christmas. This year it ended up being pneumonia and it hit pretty hard.
Sometimes a chest infection is trying me during the summer too but it goes away pretty fast and it is much less virulent. But during winter, before Christmas it has become a nightmare: now I brace myself every year....and honestly I can't take it anymore.
Otherwise, I'm generally healthy other than a hiatal hernia that can cause the occasional GERD and cronic rhinitis.
I've had this since childhood and have once tested allergic to dustmites.
Drs. Suggested that the postnasal drip May become more prominent at certain times of the year.
Please advise me what drs. to investigate with or what exactly to do: religious regimen to boost my immune system with regular exercise, supplements and diet?
? Change carpets with hard flooring? Addresss the cronic rhinitis but how?
I've gotten something similar since I was a kid most especially in the fall when switching to heat. As a teen I started smoking and that just made it worse as an adult living in the cold of Chicago. We left the cold and moved south and without fail each year when the heat gets turned on my nose goes nuts. One doctor said without any test involved, that I was allergic to my cats. Maybe! Its not as bad as it would be in Chicago and as a smoker, but its still annoying. I've taken Mucinex-D for years to avoid the stuffy nose. If you are heating your home invest in a cool mist humidifier. It will help but not eliminate the effects of the dry air.
HEPA air cleaners sold in stores can filter out many germs. A friend took one to work where she sat behind a desk handling questions from the public - she did not get sick at all that winter.
Also in the winter we sit in closed up rooms with other people - kids - and more easily catch what they have. Summer = doors/windows are open - more fresh air - fewer concentrated germs in inside air. But for the winter, one or more HEPA air cleaners can filter out a lot of those germs.
Bars are a bad place to catch germs in the winter - lots of people (some who also have kids) and in a closed up room.
Kids catch everything going around at school, then bring it home.
I would think that you would've already had a pneumonia shot if you're seeing a doctor with that kind of history. It's only needed every five years.
You would think...but nobody told me about it. I am 42 now and for a few years, as kids were small, they kept bringing stuff at home and I would pick smth from them and it would go from there; or so I thought.
Now they are 6 and 9 and this year they were not sick.
It started out with a tickle in the chest and in 2 days it hit hard.
Other years I had bronchitis but who knows if one of those episodes were not also pneumonia.
This year it was the worst, with all the textbook symptoms.
I am still recovering and just finishing two rounds of antibiotics both taken at the same time.
It left me weak, I had low oxygen levels, and I know this can't repeat next year.
I will insist on the pneumonia vaccine this year...but I still wish I could understand what predisposes me so badly to these chest infections.
I still think the main culprit is the cronic rhinitis which probably goes out of control when the dry heat.comes on and I en up with lots of postnasal drip in the chest, which further breeds bacteria.
I'm just not sure what the solution would be
other than installing a humidifier, using flonase religiously, pumping myself with vitamins, exercising, eating well and minimizing stress. The last three items are a very tall order for me during November and early December - a very stressful time at work.
I'm also thinking to go get tested for asthma. I never really had any problems before but with all the chest infections sometimes I feel like my chest is a bit tight. I hope it goes away altogether as I recover completely from pneumonia.
I'm so desperate to stop this yearly cycle, I just don't know what to do anymore or what kind of doctor to do more investigations with.I forgot to mentioned I never smoked and I do eat lots of fruits amd vegetables. Ive also had the chronic rhinitis since I was little: regularly somewhat stuffy, need to blow nose, etc.
HEPA air cleaners sold in stores can filter out many germs. A friend took one to work where she sat behind a desk handling questions from the public - she did not get sick at all that winter.
Also in the winter we sit in closed up rooms with other people - kids - and more easily catch what they have. Summer = doors/windows are open - more fresh air - fewer concentrated germs in inside air. But for the winter, one or more HEPA air cleaners can filter out a lot of those germs.
Bars are a bad place to catch germs in the winter - lots of people (some who also have kids) and in a closed up room.
Kids catch everything going around at school, then bring it home.
where should I install the HEPA filter? my husband said he changed the filters recently but I'm not sure if they're HEPA.
If it were me...but I'm different. I believe in a full frontal attack.
Absolutely no mucus forming food for awhile...and that's alot of foods...meaning
everything with white flour and dairy to start, tofu, all meats,sugar, potatoes, corn...
google them I guess.
I would be snorting once a day golden seal...rinsing sinuses with salt water.
Sleeping with my upper body slightly raised. Often with a hot water bottle on my lymphs.
If I really wanted to bother a sauna or steam bath each day.
Heat activating the white blood cells.
Taking 500mg Vit C every 2 hrs...drinking tons of water with lemon or lime.
And getting that decongestant herbal tea...oh, breathing in eucalyptus vapors like the horse in Electric Horseman.
God, it's work to heal yourself. Few will bother...unless it's their 3rd round
of antibiotics will they even do half of what I said.
Then, they always thank me.
30 years I do the above....but like twice bec I don't get sick anymore.
Thank you, Ms. Hepburn. Are the above measures applied during the time you're sick or as prevention?
I am now recovering slowly doing a lot of the things you mentioned.
Trouble is I'm terrified of the next bout which, based on the pattern over the past half a decade, is guaranteed to happen again next November if I don't do something different.
I get a light one in the summer and then, come November, it hits hard again.
The time seems to be with precision between Thxgiving,and Christmas.
I wonder if this precise timing could point to any particular cause.
My main concern is now prevention...and I could kill for a solution that would help me avoid these chest infections that set in with religious regularity.
where should I install the HEPA filter? my husband said he changed the filters recently but I'm not sure if they're HEPA.
Air filters in home air conditioning systems are about 1 inch thick...
HEPA air filters on the other hand are about 3 or 4 inches thick (will not fit into home A/C systems unless specially fitted)!
Plus HEPA filters are expensive, so don't have one fitted to your central air conditioning system - Use the 1 inch filter to filter out the "big" particles - inexpensive to replace.
Rather they sell "stand alone" HEPA air cleaners at places like Walmart. They are an electric fan and filter. Place the stand alone unit where you are at work (on desk) or home where you spend a lot of time (living room - bedroom).
My doctor told me that once you have had bronchitis you are much more likely to get it again. I went through something similar for about 5 years - I also have had allergies since childhood so I know how bad sinus problems are with dry air in the winter months.
It was by sheer accident I found a way to short circuit the repeating cycle of the bronchitis. I never learned to swim as a child - at the age of 50 I got up enough courage to take semi private lessons at the YMCA. I had always been a shallow breather - perhaps because of all my allergy issues all my life. Learning to swim forced me to learn controlled breathing and to breathe deeply in order to do four strokes before coming up for air. Over a period of about 3 months, twice a week at the pool, I was eventually able to learn to swim. Another 3 months and I was (with swim fins) up to 20 laps in the pool per visit. I had dramatically increased my lung capacity in the process of learning to swim and in the 16 years since never had another bronchitis attack.
I am not a strong swimmer, but, between losing my fear of the water and never having another bronchitis attack, learning to swim was one of the best decisions I ever made. So, if you have an opportunity to swim a few times a week at the YMCA, once you are fully recovered from your present bout of bronchitis, swimming is a really good way to learn slow, deep breathing.
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