Eleanor Konik recommends you, so you have to be good.
A taciturn doctor said I had atelectasis, but didn't say what it meant. He didn't seemed concerned. Should I be? Should I do some breathing practice (or since you can't prescribe, is it the standard of care to do so). Should I get a new doctor?
Atelectasis? Okay, so the inside of your lungs is supported by a network of elastic fibers called the parenchyma. Your body being a giant set of feedback systems, if you don't get enough exercise for a while--or possibly for other reasons--the parenchyma gets lazy and loses tone and the airways in a segment of your lung want to sag shut. Often with atelectasis you'll auscultate the lung and hear rice krispies crackles (called "fine crackles" technically, but they sound like the cereal). This is the sound of your alveoli popping open and shut as you breathe.
In terms of treatment, that's definitely within my scope of practice; in fact, it's one of the things we do that's so basic we tend to neglect it a bit. Usually we give atelectatic hospital patients an incentive spirometer, which is a special trainer doodad made out of plastic (I'm new to substack and don't see a way to format notes with links and such, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incentive_spirometer at least gives you a picture). No incentive spirometer? No big deal, it's mostly a tool to train you to breathe a certain way.
That certain way being "slow and deep." It's hard to describe how slow--the IS has an indicator and you have to keep it in the middle by breathing at the right speed--but you want to empty your lungs out as much as you can, then breathe in slow and deep like you're sucking through a straw, as long as you can, until your lungs are totally full. Hold a couple of seconds. Exhale. Repeat several times. Go about your business.
We usually give incentive spirometers to bed-bound patients, so it's hard to say how much you should do as a (presumably) ambulatory person. It's not good to be atelectatic, but there is a great deal of ruin in a person, as in a nation, and half the hospital has it. If you want to get your lungs in shape, I'm inclined to say "age- and condition-appropriate exercise," which will treat the atelectasis and other stuff too.
Going to leave off here since Substack does something incredibly annoying when you make a reply box too big. Thanks for being my very first comment, and let me know if that wasn't enough of an answer.
This is very helpful indeed. And so is the root - "not stretching to the desired limit". I will try what you say. I have been attempting to use Stephen Elliot's "Coherent Breathing" that has about 5 breaths a minute.
Thank you for writing this column. Expert knowledge is really good for us!
Eleanor Konik recommends you, so you have to be good.
A taciturn doctor said I had atelectasis, but didn't say what it meant. He didn't seemed concerned. Should I be? Should I do some breathing practice (or since you can't prescribe, is it the standard of care to do so). Should I get a new doctor?
Atelectasis? Okay, so the inside of your lungs is supported by a network of elastic fibers called the parenchyma. Your body being a giant set of feedback systems, if you don't get enough exercise for a while--or possibly for other reasons--the parenchyma gets lazy and loses tone and the airways in a segment of your lung want to sag shut. Often with atelectasis you'll auscultate the lung and hear rice krispies crackles (called "fine crackles" technically, but they sound like the cereal). This is the sound of your alveoli popping open and shut as you breathe.
In terms of treatment, that's definitely within my scope of practice; in fact, it's one of the things we do that's so basic we tend to neglect it a bit. Usually we give atelectatic hospital patients an incentive spirometer, which is a special trainer doodad made out of plastic (I'm new to substack and don't see a way to format notes with links and such, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incentive_spirometer at least gives you a picture). No incentive spirometer? No big deal, it's mostly a tool to train you to breathe a certain way.
That certain way being "slow and deep." It's hard to describe how slow--the IS has an indicator and you have to keep it in the middle by breathing at the right speed--but you want to empty your lungs out as much as you can, then breathe in slow and deep like you're sucking through a straw, as long as you can, until your lungs are totally full. Hold a couple of seconds. Exhale. Repeat several times. Go about your business.
We usually give incentive spirometers to bed-bound patients, so it's hard to say how much you should do as a (presumably) ambulatory person. It's not good to be atelectatic, but there is a great deal of ruin in a person, as in a nation, and half the hospital has it. If you want to get your lungs in shape, I'm inclined to say "age- and condition-appropriate exercise," which will treat the atelectasis and other stuff too.
Going to leave off here since Substack does something incredibly annoying when you make a reply box too big. Thanks for being my very first comment, and let me know if that wasn't enough of an answer.
This is very helpful indeed. And so is the root - "not stretching to the desired limit". I will try what you say. I have been attempting to use Stephen Elliot's "Coherent Breathing" that has about 5 breaths a minute.
Thank you for writing this column. Expert knowledge is really good for us!