All coughed out.
So I've been sick and have had a terrible cough since Thanksgiving but things cleared up last week and I felt so much better. I also noticed a side effect: exercise does not trigger a coughing fit anymore. In fact, neither does cold, dry air.
Now, asthma occurs when your airways get inflamed and constrict your air passages. I've been getting asthma like attacks for years now and they had been gradually getting worse over time, coming to a head this past month.
But the fact that I suddenly feel a lot better (coughing wise) then I have in years after my month long coughing fit makes me wonder if my asthma attacks were caused by a chronic infection triggered by certain environmental events that got worse as the infection continued to spread. The last cold/flu/HFM/whatever virus that hit me two months ago probably triggered my immune system to ramp up anti infection procedures and I started to cough out everything, and I mean everything out of my lungs. Even deeply rooted biofilms would have been dislodged by the constant hacking and mucus that I was generating during that period. Once the acute infection was dealt with, the chronic one was more exposed and the immune system went to work on that, prolonging my suffering but in the end clearing up my system a lot more than I ever could have imagined.
Now, this is only a hypothesis, but I do like it. The initial coughing - vomiting issue that hit me a decade ago, and exacerbated by the retainer could have led to a chronic infection of my throat and lungs that I just lived with. I'm not sure if biofilms could persist in relatively healthy people, although I must add that my neutrophil counts have always been low, and neutrophils are the first line of defense, so it may be possible that certain bacteria or biofilms could take root in my system given enough adaptation.
In any case, I will continue to monitor the situation and see if there are any long term effects. Hopefully this relapse is more permanent than I expect it to be, but I have a feeling that the cough will return as I did get a small attack last night at broomball, after an hour of running - which is better than a minute of running.
Now, asthma occurs when your airways get inflamed and constrict your air passages. I've been getting asthma like attacks for years now and they had been gradually getting worse over time, coming to a head this past month.
But the fact that I suddenly feel a lot better (coughing wise) then I have in years after my month long coughing fit makes me wonder if my asthma attacks were caused by a chronic infection triggered by certain environmental events that got worse as the infection continued to spread. The last cold/flu/HFM/whatever virus that hit me two months ago probably triggered my immune system to ramp up anti infection procedures and I started to cough out everything, and I mean everything out of my lungs. Even deeply rooted biofilms would have been dislodged by the constant hacking and mucus that I was generating during that period. Once the acute infection was dealt with, the chronic one was more exposed and the immune system went to work on that, prolonging my suffering but in the end clearing up my system a lot more than I ever could have imagined.
Now, this is only a hypothesis, but I do like it. The initial coughing - vomiting issue that hit me a decade ago, and exacerbated by the retainer could have led to a chronic infection of my throat and lungs that I just lived with. I'm not sure if biofilms could persist in relatively healthy people, although I must add that my neutrophil counts have always been low, and neutrophils are the first line of defense, so it may be possible that certain bacteria or biofilms could take root in my system given enough adaptation.
In any case, I will continue to monitor the situation and see if there are any long term effects. Hopefully this relapse is more permanent than I expect it to be, but I have a feeling that the cough will return as I did get a small attack last night at broomball, after an hour of running - which is better than a minute of running.
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