This was the exclamation that greeted me today as I returned home from a short trip.
Monkey reported that in Sunday’s away game, he felt an attack coming on and was able to prevent it by using the abdominal breathing techniques. (He sniffs in through his nose, making sure his belly expands, then exhales slowly while making “ssssss” sounds.)
He also reported that in today’s practice, he had a full attack that he didn’t see coming, but he was able to reverse it with about 5 minutes of the abdominal breathing.
We are over a major hump here, and it is very exciting. Monkey is so thrilled about this. He joked with his brother about how he had finally learned to breathe correctly, after doing it wrong all these years. 
Knowing that this is fixable in this manner has really lifted a weight from him.
Our next step is to determine whether he also has asthma. I plan to ask the pulmonologist if we can wean him off everything just before his next visit and see what his spirometry looks like “au naturel”.
February 4, 2009 at 2:10 am |
I have a 16yr old daughter with exercise induced vcd while swimming.Wondering if there is anyone with any info on how to implement the breathing techniques while swimming or any other helpful ideas.She is very frustrated!Does Spiriva help?
February 4, 2009 at 2:17 am |
Tracey, does your daughter have a speech therapist working on the breathing techniques with her? If so, and if her therapist does not have suggestions as to how to do it while swimming, perhaps arranging for her swimming trainer to meet with the speech therapist (together with your daughter) to see if they can come up with something workable.
If there are other triggers, like reflux, in the mix, using tums before swimming might help.
We never tried the spiriva. My son got things under control without it.
Best of luck to your daughter! It is an incredibly frustrating condition and she has our sympathies/commiseration. I hope she can figure something out so that she can keep swimming without breathing problems.