Right lower lobe recurrent/persistent pneumonia can sometimes be a red flag for an aspiration type pneumonia. Any chance that you have any kind of swallowing problem or had an instance of inhaling food? Our lungs and bronchi are asymmetrical as the heart is on the left side of our chest. The result of this is that when food and/or liquid goes down your airway, it tends to fall to the RLL. Recurrent pneumonia is commonly seen in folks with swallowing problems (i.e, dysphagia). However, dysphagia is definitely not the only reason that one could experience recurrent pneumonia.
In an otherwise healthy 44 year old women, it is not common to see swallowing problems. Depending on one's medical history, there are a variety of reasons one could get dysphagia including: trauma to the head and neck region d/t surgery, accident, intubation, various neurological diseases and at times, something as benign as acid reflux.
If you are noticing some occasional difficulty with swallowing (i.e., more than 1x/wk coughing/choking on food) it would be worthwhile to bring this up with your doctor.
Source: I am a licensed speech-language pathologist at a hospital and treat people with swallowing problems.
Do this pranayam for 30 minutes,daily, twice a day. You will notice the benefit in a few weeks, and then you will not need to worry.Once you are better, continue the pranayam for 20 minutes daily , for life.
Build up your timing gradually.If you feel tired or dizzy, stop and resume after one minute.
Anulom Vilom pranayam –
Close your right nostril with thumb and deep breath-in through left nostril
then – close left nostril with two fingers and breath-out through right nostril
then -keeping the left nostril closed deep breath-in through right nostril
then - close your right nostril with thumb and breath-out through left nostril.
This is one cycle of anulom vilom.
Repeat this cycle for 15 to 30 minutes twice a day.
Children under 15 years – do 5 to 10 minutes twice a day.
You can do this before breakfast/lunch/dinner or before bedtime or in bed.Remember to take deep long breaths into the lungs.You can do this while sitting on floor or chair or lying in bed.
august 12, 2011