Thursday, July 25, 2013

Détente

After the horrible experiences described in yesterday's Ultraviolence post I was determined to avoid repeating the experience.

I put in three liters of fluid during the night, between 2:00 and 6:00 AM. Some Pedialyte, some Gatorade and the rest water. The trade-off was even less sleep than I've already been getting. I'll try to nap more during the day.

So far, so good. It's still taking a couple of hours to clear the night's accumulation, but with a much lower level of violence.

I'm focusing on calming myself between coughs.

There's still pain and blood, but so far every cough has been productive. In another hour I should have the accumulation cleared.

Hopefully this strategy will continue to work.

4 comments:

  1. Hiya John,
    I'm so sorry to hear you're having such problems clearing all the mucous. I'm sure you guys have thought of this already, but would a humidifier help?

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    1. Yes, I have a cool mist humidifier running right next to my pillow. Hard to tell if it does any good.

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  2. It's me again. I realize that Boston is already very humid so maybe a humidifier is not what you need. You may want to consider getting an oxygen tank prescribed to you that also has the capability of administering humidified oxygen. You can use it during your coughing fits and it should help with the air hunger - anxiety feed back loop. Those kinds of episodes are difficult to break. Having some extra oxygen available at those times may help ameliorate the situation. Thinking of you!

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    1. My plan is avoid future ultraviolence. If I focus, I can relax and stop the spiral. I was able to do it this morning. Also, avoid putting too much food in my stomach during the morning clearance ritual.

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