Well, it happened. The thing I'd been dreading since surviving lung cancer happened when the nasty snotty cold which started with a horrid sore throat, climbed down into my remaining right lung lobe. Why couldn't it have chosen the left hand side I wonder? The reason I'd been dreading it was that I wasn't sure how easy it would be to clear that lobe. The answer is, quite difficult.
I've had to perform some bronchial athletics. I found the barking deer (well that's what it sounds like) method of moving excess fluids up the tubes most useful. The physio at the hospital introduced me to it after the lung lobes removal and my mum tells me its something she learnt at yoga.
Here's how you do it. Instead of during a normal cough, when you start by closing your throat in order to raise the pressure in the lung, you keep you throat open and use your chest muscles in exactly the same way but push the air out throught he open throat. Several puffs usually do the trick - and then an ordinary cough sorts out the remainder..
I'm assuming that the reason clearing the lobe is so difficult is that it's floating around in a load of space that it never bargained on occupying, therefore making the effect of the muscle activity less effective than it would otherwise be.
Hey ho - another couple of days and it should all be over and I'll be back to living as if nothing extraordinary ever happened to me.
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