Health: Respiratory

It's easy to think our respiratory system is just our lungs but that's just the lower bit.  The upper respiratory system is our ears, nose and throat and all the little tubes that connect them together.

My ears were an issue from quite a young age.  I don't remember when, they just always were.  I remember being taken to see an ENT specialist by my parents but I don't really remember what was said.  I was just too young.  I do remember that there was not really much to be done.  I was a child that grew up knowing words like Eustachian Tube and Catarrh.

I had glue ear and then gromits to drain it.  I was always getting ear infections and was often at the Doctor's having my ears syringed out.  I was often on antibiotics.  I had my adenoids taken out around age 6 and things did improve after that.  I didn't have quite as many ear infections as before.  They were still a feature of my life, just not as constant.  I also remember that flying really, really hurt.

I generally didn't have sinus issues but I remember going for a university interview day in London and having the worst sinus infection.  I had an awful headache and I seem to remember I saw some bizarre colours.  

I know as a teen I must have had a little hayfever, because I remember buying Triludan and being disappointed when it was discontinued as it had worked really well for me.  I think again, it was just a constant.  Something I treated and didn't pay much attention to.  I played around with over the counter antihistamines and eventually settled on Loratidine.

In my late teens, early twenties, I lived in the city for a bit.  I went to see an Acupuncturist a few times and I remember him telling me I had weak lungs and suggesting some exercises to strengthen them.  I had no idea I had an issue...  but in hindsight, I absolutely did.  At school, there was always an assumption that I was unfit and that was the cause of my breathelessness.  We did PE five times a week though and I was not an unactive child.

The other issue that began in my early 20s was eczema around my ears.  My Mum had it too.  Initially it was this big sore crack behind my ear but it soon settled with some steroid cream.  I still use that cream and my eczema is pretty well managed now.  The biggest issue with it is that I get it in my ear canal too.

When I left the city and moved to Cornwall, I had the opportunity to do some scuba diving.  Mostly we practiced all our skills in a local pool.  To qualify though, we had to do a certain number of open water dives.  I went to do my first dive in the sea and we had not been in the water very long when it went a little wrong.

I don't remember all of it so well now but I suddenly had trouble with directions and up and down.  I started just staring at a point to try and orientate myself, but it would just suddenly jump.  I asked to go up, but I couldn't really explain what was wrong, so we went back down and finished the dive.  After, my friend and I went and got me a wooly hat and I even went to watch a match.

It wasn't until the evening that I really realised I had a problem and I got a friend to take me up to the long Emergency Department.  I was told I had burst my ear drum.  I had had an inner ear infection which had meant my pressure was not able to equalise in that ear.  I had not just caused a tiny little hole, I had completely burst it.  

The initial ear infection was horrid.  I had two lots of oral antibiotics and two lots of topical antibiotics.  Each additional lot of drugs I was given had a nastier and nastier list of side effects.  The stuff coming out of my ear was horrid.  Noise hurt.  Eventually, it cleared.  It took a year to heal and I had to be so careful about getting water in my ear.

I went to the local ENT department and I remember the assessment at the end.  It had healed completely and I knew I was lucky.  My ear drum now had a weird double bounce to it, that I wouldn't notice.  It actually meant my ear drum had grown back more flexible than before.

Generally things were OK.  In my 30s, I got swine flu.  I barely noticed the flu itself, but I ended up with a horrible chest infection.  Breathing was laboured and it took me a month to recover. This was my first really bad chest infection, but not my last.  It slowly became clear to me that anything that settled on my chest was bad and would take me a lot longer to clear.  I had two or three like this.  Also, when I had especially bad congestion and issues, it was now enough to perforate my ear drum.  Only a small hole, not an obliteration luckily.  One time, when I returned to work I had to wear headphones as my hearing was very vulnerable.

The next thing that happened was that my trusty Loratidine started to become less effective for me.  By this point I was taking it every day, all year and I didn't really realise what an issue it was that it was failing.  I started to wheeze a little in the evenings.  I really should have gone to the Doctor's when that first started happening, but I didn't.  Then I had a whole night where my breathing was really bad and I had trouble sleeping.  Again, I should have gone in to the hospital and got some treatment, I didn't.  I did go to the doctors the next day and got my first blue reliever inhaler for my newly diagnosed asthma.

I continued to be wheezy though and eventually, I had another really bad night.  The next day I went to the Doctor again and started a brown preventer inhaler.  I also switched to a prescription antihistamine, Fexofenadine.  The preventer inhaler helped a lot.  I know some people like to rely on reliever inhalers, but I was not one of those.  I was not someone who had the occasional day time asthma attack, I was bad every night and I didn't want to be.

When I eventually started walking, my attitude on my breathing slowly changed, with my husband's support and encouragement.  I always assumed my poor breathing was because of my fitness and of course, it was in part.  I now had a reliever inhaler though and instead of blaming my fitness when my chest got tight, I started to use my inhaler and it worked.

I have had a few appointments now with the asthma nurse and it seems that one of the clearest diagnosis of asthma is that inhalers help.  If it's caused by something else, the inhalers won't really do much to help.  My asthma is atopical, which means it's largely allergy based.  I just seem to be a little allergic to everything.  It has made me rethink my issues with sport at school and also explains the weakness of my chest.  

My ears continued to rumble on.  In my 40's my eczema seemed to worsen and that was when it moved in to my ears.  I had very long hair and it reached a point where my ears were so annoying that I had it cut off.  I no longer tolerate hair over my ears, it drives me insane with itching.  Having short air has really helped my eczema as a whole but I also have to be much more careful of my ears with weather.  I spend a large part of the year wearing wooly hats outdoors now.  Wind, rain and cold are all trigegrs for ear aches and infections.

I had one really bad winter, my eczema was providing a route for infection that gave me many outer ear infections.  I found though that things had progressed and I was given a spray called Otomise instead of oral antibiotics.  This winter though, nothing seemed to clear up my ears and my hearing was badly affected.  

I went to see ENT again.  They were a little puzzled when they tested my hearing in my affected ear as it seemed pretty normal.  It was not until they tested my unaffected ear that they realised I have exceptionally good hearing and it was this comparison that made me feel like I couldn't hear.  I was badly affected, but my baseline was in a different place to most peoples.  They also found I had chronic rhinitus.  I have a constant stream of mucus down my nose and throat.  At night it can cause breathing issues and is known as post nasal drip.  It's another allergy thing.

The other allergy thing I have going on is blepharitis.  It's a dry eye thing and often allergy based and quite often seen in people with eczema and allergies.  I just generally seem to be a little bit allergic to the world.  Fexafenadine is often used for people with skin allergies too and it has obviously helped me in this regard as well.  When I stop taking it, after 24 hours I begin to itch everywhere.

Sooo, a whole bunch of chronic issues that come together to give me a very vulnerable respiratory system, due in part to allergies, but also just how I am put together.  So my upper and lower respiratory system are weakened by allergy and prone to infection and congestion and my eczema gives an additional rote for outer ear infections.  Congestion and infection strain my ear drum which occasionally bursts.  

I use steroid cream round my ears, steroid ear drops in my ears and a steroid inhaler.  I take antihistamines every day.  I additionally manage it my wearing a hat over my ears if its cold enough.  I also keep my hair short.  I ignore my tinnitus.

All these things mean that things are generally fairly well managed.  Some scents cause me huge issues.  My husband has to be careful what he uses and we find things that do not upset me.  I largely use unscented things these days.  I can not smell them much anyway and the less there is in things I use on my skin, the better.  My bath stuff is a medical anti-bacterial skin wash I get on prescription for my HS.  I use scent free sensitive shower gel and shampoo.  Sometimes peoples products do cause me issues.  My Dad insists on using a scent dispenser in his house that causes me issues and I have sat near people with perfumes that have affected me.  I can take additional antihistamines though and use my reliever inhaler.

Sometimes though I just have issues.  Last November I had a nasty bug and then another this May.  My ears have generally been rumbly and sensitive this winter and still are.  Nothing too dreadful but just sensitive and a low level of congestion that rumbles.  Two weeks ago, I went to treat my ears with my steroid drops.  I do this every few weeks to stay on top of my eczema.  I also use olive oil ear drops regularly to stay on top of my ear cleanliness.  This is vital for me.  Nothing has really helped completely calm them down though and this time, one of my ears really hurt when I used the elocon.  My ears have been puffed up and full ever since.  Sometimes they pop, sometimes things are shifting, sometimes I have a little discharge and sometimes they hurt.  It's chronic rather than acute...  Just annoying and some days I feel a bit bleurgh.  I can feel I am generally congested with my sinuses feeling full too.  I am waiting for a Doctor's appointment...