The scariest event of my life began with a chest infection, and ended up with surgery that shook my world. The cough has been the most stubborn symptom, still residing in my daily life, unfortunately paired with disgusting phlegm. I know you didn’t ask for the details but I’m here to give them to you. I decided to try acupuncture while I was working in Brisbane, with the main aim of reducing my cough.
More *cough cough* details
In October 2022 I had a chest infection which caused my Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) flare to go crazy, eventually hospitalising me. The surgery seemed to exacerbate the cough. Under general anaesthesia spontaneous breathing doesn’t occur, requiring a breathing tube for oxygen. During this time secretions can build up in the lungs that need to be cleared by coughing once awake. Normally this is fine, most people will cough it up, move things around, clearing the cough in a few days. I’m not sure what was different in my case, but my cough never went away.
I’d also like to impress upon you how difficult it is to cough after abdominal surgery. My core muscles were sliced open. I woke up with, what felt like, the core muscles of a newborn baby, only capable of rolling around without managing to sit up. Quite literally, that was me. Thankfully, I still had suitable arm strength to drag myself up into the seated position, and a handy bed that propped me up at the push of a button.
I even needed a physiotherapist to come and visit me, to help me cough. No, literally, to help me cough. This involved having a rolled up towel to push against my stomach as I coughed. I hope I’m able to paint a picture of how difficult this was. I could cough, but what a pitiful excuse it was, and there was no way I was clearing up the accumulated rubbish in the tiny air sacs of my lungs.
Maybe it was a combination of a chest infection before, the intubation during the 7 hour surgery and the core muscles making it so difficult to cough after surgery, but here I am, two years later and making hacking noises that people look at me funny for. And I don’t blame them: we all lived through covid (although, friends, I am convinced this is not contagious).
Why not get it sorted in England?
Great question. I did try. I went on antibiotics, I had my sputum tested (clear), had a CT scan (clear). What am I supposed to do? I didn’t quite fancy being on drugs with whatever side effects for however long either. Not to mention, I ended up running out of time to find the solution in England and I had to get to Australia.
Acupuncture trial
Of course, we’ve all heard of it: a traditional chinese medicine technique where small needles are inserted into pressure points to restore the flow of chi, or energy to bring back balance in the body. Do I believe it? I’d like to, but as they say the proof is in the pudding, and I was certainly willing to try. So I booked in for my first appointment at $120 which included a review of my previous medical issues and what problems I was trying to address.
My acupuncturist explained she had great success at clearing coughs previously and had high hopes for this time. In the first appointment as well as the health chat we got down to it and she started off with cupping to ‘move the mucus around’. After applying a bit of oil she moved the cups up and down my back, it felt like a massage, then she suckered them into place and left me alone in the room to relax with some oriental music playing in the background.
Needles and cups, cups and needles
Soon cupping became my favourite thing. The darker the spots the more stagnation in the area the more you needed the cupping! I walked around for about a week with Ben telling me I looked like a victim of an octopus attack.
After the cups were removed the needles were added and again I was left to relax with some nice music. Over half the time I ended up falling asleep, and feeling wonderfully woozy by the time the needles were being removed.
Final results: Acupuncture wins
Not only was it a truly relaxing experience that felt like a good healthy dose of self care, it was also a place I truly listened to. I kept going not only for this reason, but after 3 or 4 sessions my cough had begun to noticeably reduce. I went from coughing multiple times a day everyday to some days not at all.
The sensation of my cough had also changed after 4-5 treatments, I began dry coughing, which was so surprising, I could barely remember what it felt like to cough without something threatening to come up with it. This was significant enough for me to continue until we left brisbane.
In total I had around 12 sessions attending once a week. Yes, a very pretty penny but one I was willing to spend to have this cough even somewhat reduced. In the end I still have the cough, but it bothers me once or twice a week rather than everyday, multiple times a day.
To me that’s a win and I would have made that choice again and again to have acupuncture. Hopefully one day I’ll forget what it feels like to cough stuff up, but until then, I’m so grateful it has been reduced, and I would reccomend it to someone wanting try to a difference avenue at treating an ongoing issue.
