Yesterday and today I've been experiencing a tightness when breathing. It was present late last night and lasted for about 3 or 4 hours. Doing my treatment and then coughing a lot helped to clear the tightness. The whole day today it was gone as well, but it returned this evening again. This time it does feel like it may be more muscular than actual lung tightness. That said, I decided to start my Cayston up a week early. I'm not sure if any of you have done this, but it worried me to feel this two days in a row. I figure a week early probably can't hurt too much. My clinic appointment is this Thursday, so I figure I'll hold off on calling the doctor (I just came off of a two week run of Cipro not even a month ago). She won't be able to see me any earlier, and I don't have a fever at all.
Sometimes the constant juggling act of this disease is ridiculous! I hate wondering if this is a major infection or just something that will pass. My sugars ARE up, my tiredness is more prevalent, and my chest feels tight. Other than that, I feel good! Irritating.
That is so frustrating! I don't have diabetes so I have no idea, but could higher sugars be making your lungs feel tighter?
ReplyDeleteLike I mentioned on facebook, I often have lung tightness when I have either a plug or a little pocket of dry mucus that just is kind of "stuck" somewhere. (And to answer your question there, no, my plugs aren't always painful... it just depends on where they get lodged!) Sometimes I just feel tight and have no idea why. On occasion, if it IS asthma, then I can do some relaxation and deep breathing and actually open my airways up (something I discovered when I had a bad asthma attack in a store parking lot and had no inhaler!). Also, do you ever use essential oils? Eucalyptus essential oil is AWESOME for helping open me up when I'm tight. If I have the regular oil, I put a few drops into a pot of boiling water and breathe the steam for a few minutes. If not, sometimes I just put Vicks on my chest and that helps too. I've found that putting Vicks on my chest before I go to bed is actually shockingly helpful... sometimes I end up coughing up a lot of congestion after I've been sleeping for a few hours when I do that!
Either way, I hope that things straighten out! Just tightness alone doesn't usually signal and infection for me - at least not a big enough one to treat/worry about. If it does persist, though, you could ask your doctor about maybe doing a short prednisone burst. You could have some inflammation that is making things tighter. Prednisone is one of my least favorite drugs on earth, but it does open up my lungs beautifully!
Wow, sorry that was a novel! ;)
DeleteI love your comments, Cindy. You are always so great at commenting, responding, and offering insightful advice. I look forward to each comment you give.
ReplyDeleteI will have to try some Eucalyptus Oil. My sister swears by essential oils, including Lavender to help provide calm. My sugars haven't been high enough that I would think it would effect my breathing (and I'm not sure if it would ever do that..I really don't know). My sugars are just higher than baseline which is 140 two hours after meals. I did make it through the whole day yesterday without tightness, but it's back a tiny bit this morning. I'm actually wanting to talk to my docs about possibly adding in Advair or something similar to open up my smaller airways more. Also, I stopped nebbing hyper-sal due to recurring hemoptysis. I should probably start this back up, but I'm worried about it.
I have never been on steroids, so I'm not sure how they would affect me. I can't imagine they are fun, as I've heard many horror stories with them. I definitely want to ask about this all at clinic on Thursday, though. Thank you so much for your help with this all, Cindy.