Coughing
I get bad coughing bouts plenty of mucus. Difficulty breathing. It all of a sudden explodes, takes about 15 - 30 min + to calm down. I take carbocisteine and do nasal saline rinse. On antihistamine and nasal spray. Plus normal copd meds. Any help appreciated
Hi
, and thanks for your post. As you may be aware, coughing and mucus production (sometimes in copious amounts), can be characteristic symptoms of COPD. They certainly pose challenges for those patients in whom these symptoms are manifest.
I thought you might gain some additional insight from these two articles on these timely topics.
First, this material, which speaks to COPD and mucus: https://copd.net/clinical/mucus-with-copd.
And next, this information, which focuses on COPD and coughing: https://copd.net/living/not-just-cough.
I do hope these two articles prove to be helpful for you.
Wishing you well,
Leon L (author/moderator)
Hi, I had a bad bout of bringing up mucus yesterday morning, it was having none of it, head over sink wouldn't come up, my leg swinging all over the place because of the straining stop abit after I manage to get a small amount up, sit down and up again to repeat it all again until I can get the mucus up from low down bottom of lungs, it is clever really how we learn where about the mucus is in our lungs with experience , to be able to feel and pin point how much more coughing and straining it may take before you are allowed to settle down , what a carry on.X
Hi again, CopdGirl - nice to hear from you here again! I am sorry to hear of your coughing jag yesterday morning. That must have been some ordeal!!
When it comes to the symptoms which can be characteristic of COPD, and the effects COPD has on all the various patients, sometimes the only explanation is that the disease (as with all diseases) affects everyone differently. Folks' level of disease may be similar, but the disease itself manifests itself differently within everyone's physiologic make up.
As it turns out, I have seen and treated patients who claim to have 'no symptoms'. Other times patients actually have mild symptoms, or even symptoms that are sub-clinical for which they are unaware. Over the course of years, this disease can progress insidiously leaving patients unmindful of its presence until a precipitating event brings them in (to a doctor), for an assessment.
All this to say, CopdGirl - everyone can be distinctly and significantly different in their management of this disease. You, on the other hand, appear to have a good understanding of your own level of disease and, what it takes to manage this in your life. I always enjoy our conversations together here!
As always, warm regards,
Leon L (author/moderator)Hi Leon, I also enjoy our conversations here, and Thank-you so much for your reply as always.X
CommunityMembera2d818,
I can only speak to what I do to control coughing. Uncontrolled coughing is dangerous as I found out a couple months ago. I had a small flare up and coughed so much I broke open some scar tissue in my right lung that caused a hospital stay. Since then, I have a routine I use. First off, I use my acapella 4-5 times a day. This helps loosen any mucus. When I start coughing, I immediately start Pursed Lip Breathing. Once I have the cough under control (instead of your cough controlling you), I use the Huff Coughing technique. This further loosens the mucus and makes it easy to cough out. Since I have been using this technique, I have learned to control my cough. It has never failed to get rid of my mucus. Once I learned the proper Huff Coughing technique, it has worked like a charm. There are plenty of articles about both available online. Also, you can go to You Tube and watch videos of Pursed Lip Breathing and Huff Coughing techniques. These should help you with your coughing and mucus. Take care and God Bless!
Thank you for sharing what you do to control your coughing. I am certain others here will find this helpful. And what you shared is exactly what we teach in the hospital setting to our COPD patients. And for those who want to read further about the Huff Coughing technique, we have an article that describes how to do it here (https://copd.net/living-with-copd/breathing-strategies). All the best. John. community moderator
