Keeping an Optimistic Outlook

A cold always poses a challenge for my asthma and my most recent encounter caused my asthma to become all wacky. It seems like my most bothersome symptoms had returned. A terrible bout of bronchorrhea. I was hoping it would be limited but after it lingered for several weeks it was time to have it reassessed.

Unfortunately, it was assessed as being connected to the infection and there was very little that could be done to treat it. We made a slight modification to the medication to see if it could offer any relief. I was grateful to try anything but so saddened that the symptoms burden was so high and that I was mostly going to have to "live with it."

My past experiences creating a fear of my current one

I felt out of my element even though I had dealt with these symptoms before, yet I had forgotten about their impact on my quality of life. I was hoping that my cold would be quite limited, but I knew as soon as the bronchorrhea was back that I might be in for the long haul.

I have often wondered where the balance between my past experiences and embracing my asthma in 2023 is. I wondered if I had not been patient enough with my symptoms, I did have symptoms for a few weeks, but it had not been months or longer as was the case with some previous bouts. I was uncomfortable and not sleeping due to the constant clearing of sputum, sore ribs from the coughing, and a high level of exhaustion. I wanted to trust my body, however, I did not have the confidence to do it.

My previous difficult experiences with exacerbated asthma made me fear that I was going to be back to where I was years ago. I knew that I was letting my fear run away with these thoughts and I would need to implement some strategies to tackle them.

I had to think back to how I had previously survived these situations and found the confidence to keep pushing through. To reflect on this situation, I had to take a step back and take stock of the entire situation. I have had mostly stable asthma for quite some time and we were confident that the symptoms were related to infection and they should improve at some stage. I was concerned that this could be the beginning of another bad bout of asthma or that my wacky lungs had another wacky thing brewing. There always seemed to be an inclination that something worse could be on the horizon.

I had to remember that my state of asthma was not dependent on the status of my bronchorrhea. My lung function was holding steady and my cough seemed to be subsiding. These were all positives and I had to look at all the aspects of my asthma.

How do you keep an optimistic outlook during asthma exacerbations?

What techniques do you use from previous asthma experiences, to keep a clear perspective on future exacerbations or expectations? I would love to hear about your experience and thoughts about moving forward, and not letting the past hold you in a state of fear.