how have other people dealt with this?

[Guest guest]

, I used to feel conspicuous, with coughing etc and when I first started using a portable 02 set, but now its more about quality of life rather than worrying about standing out from the crowd !

Most people are accepting of health problems and limitations if its simply explained to them...children are more direct and ask why??!!

Having bronch (or any disease) will knock the old self confidence

a bit....no easy answer for help in going out and keeping involved in life....

( join up with a respiratory rehab group....social contacts there ? )

Cheers Craig - NZ

1d. Re: nebulizer Posted by: "claudia henao" chenao77@... chenao77 Date: Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:46 pm (PDT)

I know especially before my surgery, i coughed uncontrollably. I would avoid laughing, bending over to pick things up and many other things because i knew they added to the cough attacks. It is definitely much better since i've had my surgery, but not completely gone. Its socially a faux-pa i think, not to mention very embarrassing when it happens. I also avoid going to friends for weekends, or camping or on vacations (anything overnight) since i've been on the nebulizer. aside from my roommate and parents and brother, no one knows i'm on it and i try to keep it that way as much as possible. it bothers me greatly that i have that thing. when i went to a friends wedding last year in a different city, i stayed up a couple of hours after my friends who's house i was staying at to do my neb so i could be sure they were asleep and wouldn't hear me. then i left first thing in the morning to go home to do it again. it's a gigantic pain in the butt. my roommate tells me i should just tell people, that they will understand and won't care. but i can't bring myself to do it. does anyone else feel this way, or is it just me? i know i also have issues when it comes to relationships. i'm single and i turn guys down almost immediately because i think they will do that to me when they find out i am sick and do all these drugs and postural drainage and stuff. how have other people dealt with this? sorry to go on and on... but these are the things no one can ever tell you the answer to. claudia