Backseat Positivity
"Able to make serious topics lighthearted and fun - I even laughed at some points!"
Get your bi-weekly dose of positivity in this fun podcast with Dr Dawn Barlow, who helps you navigate all of the weird/best/worst parts of life!
Dawn takes you on the self-improvement journey you didn't realise you needed... Bought to you by a doctor who hasn't had life as sweet as many of her comrades. She knows firsthand just how rubbish life can be, yet has managed to turn her life around for the better!
From relationships to mental health to happiness, make sure you buckle up twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) the join her and her guests for candid self-improvement. Don't forget of the course, the "weird thoughts" segment, where Dawn and her guests share weird thoughts from their lives.
Dawn says:
Sometimes life reminds me of being in a washing machine. It's a bit spinny and turbulent for a while, but then it stops and gives you a little break before spinning you into oblivion once more. It feels like the washing machine wants to wash something bad out of all of us... positivity.
Some might EVEN say that positivity is shouting from the backseat and no-one wants to listen to it... [backseat positivity] More than once a week, but less than 4 times a week, you can shove me in your auditory canals and listen to me chat about L.I.F.E., self-improvement, mental health and anything else that my little monkey-mind paws can grasp onto.
Sometimes other humans actually dare to join me.
It's candid, it's fun. Woo!
Backseat Positivity
Battling Chest Infections and Embracing Natural Healing
I never expected that a routine attempt to shed some pounds would evolve into an intimate confrontation with a chest infection. Amidst this health hiccup, a mixture of exhaustion, an unfamiliar cough, and an unsettling chest crackle became my reality. It's a challenge that hits close to home, touching on the delicate balance one must maintain when navigating the path to better health while also being mindful of the body's vulnerabilities. This episode peels back the layers of my life, from the bustling corridors of the hospital where I work to the silent battles fought in the pursuit of wellness. It's a candid reveal of the symptoms that took hold and a reflection on how my surrounding environment and recent lifestyle shifts could be influencing my susceptibility to illness.
Navigating the treacherous waters of illness without medical intervention is a tale as old as time for me, especially reflecting on the scars left from a past eating disorder. As I unpack the reasons behind my decision to steer clear of the gym for now, I emphasize the crucial role of proper nutrition and ample rest in the recovery process. Home remedies have taken center stage in my personal care regimen, and I share the concoctions that have offered me some relief. While I'm no stranger to the occasional unconventional approach, this narrative is not just about making do—it's about making informed, compassionate choices for one's health without a prescription pad in hand. Join me as I open up about the intersection of health, healing, and the human spirit.
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Hello, this is my third podcast of the day. Wow. Today I thought I'd just chat to you about how I'm getting over my chest infection. I don't want this to be like medical advice, but I thought it might be useful. You know, people might be like how does Dawn do it? I don't know, how do you get over, cause I think I've got a chest infection okay. So I just wanted to talk about that and it's kind of unusual because I'm not the kind of person who ever, rarely, if ever. I think this is my second chest infection of my whole life. So I don't have a lung condition and I kind of blame it on, not blame it. I blame it on the weight loss. Basically and we'll get into that in a bit how am I blaming my chest infection on my weight loss? So, at first, I guess, how do I know I've got one? Well, the main reason is because my cough is productive.
Speaker 1:Now my illness actually started off probably just under a week ago now and I had some days off work because I was honestly like exhausted, like I just I would wake up and I would be exhausted, Like, and I felt really burnt out as well, like dead, exhausted, done, dead, exhausted and done was my motto for that week, so I needed some sofa days. I chilled out. Do you know what? I didn't have like a cough or anything at that point and I was like, maybe I'm just burnt out, but I'm probably fine. Whether this all accumulated into one might be a reason Like that might be the reason why I've become sick, but I think it's a couple of things. So, yeah, it started off feeling just like you know Aiki what we call my algebraic just like general shit. And then a few days ago I started to develop this cough and when I was, I could like okay, this is really gross. By the way, this is really gross.
Speaker 1:I could tell when I was swallowing the stuff I was coughing up from my chest. I could tell it was thick and I could tell it was not just like saliva-y flemy stuff, like I could tell there was something going on. You know, it tasted funky and I don't know makes me feel really unwell to like think about it and talk about it. So I'm not gonna like significantly go into that cause it. Just, you know, I knew, I knew. So I was in the shower and I was like right, I'm gonna cough this shit up and it's really thick. So I'm like trying to cough it up.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, the problem is you know, by the point, that I've tried to cough it up that much, I'm sort of like to the point of gagging, like saliva like, and so there I was in the shower and I decided I was gonna just like spit it out into the shower, which is fine, cause you're in a shower, right. Anyway, turns out it's like yellow, I guess, like a kind of, I was gonna say, canary, but more like a, like a pastel, pastel yellow. I've got like a yellow here that I think. Anyway, it was yellow. You don't need to know specifically what shade of yellow it was. It was yellow and I can tell you know it's coming right from in here. It's not like an upper thing, you can feel it right.
Speaker 1:So then the next day or two, I'm like waking up and when you go to sleep, basically you don't breathe very deeply, you just breathe really shallowly. You obviously don't cough. So what was happening was all of this gunky shit was like sat on my chest and not being coughed up, and then when I'd wake up in the morning, I would have like this, a bit like Rice Krispies, like this kind of crackling noise, and that is basically where your airways get kind of sticky. They stick together and when you breathe in, they all pop open and that's the noise that, when we listen to your chest, we can sometimes hear. That, depending on if you have it or not, it's not a normal finding, let's put it that way. It means there's something wrong with your airways. Either there's liquid in there or there's gunky shit, as you know. But it didn't really feel like it was in my lungs. It kind of felt like it was in, like my main airway and it's like the crackly sound is like here.
Speaker 1:So I don't think it's like a proper, you know, pneumonia, as in like lung infection same thing. I think it's more of like a tracheitis, which the jacquilla is like your windpipe right, and it can get infected and basically I have had this before, so I'll talk about that in a bit. But fucking iPad's locked again. So you know, I don't actually have a thermometer, so I don't know if I had any fevers, but I did feel like unwell and kind of feverish, as in, you know, when you feel like like just shit and you're like I don't feel good, like you know. But I didn't yeah, I didn't measure my temperature. So the other thing is, I obviously work in a hospital, being a doctor, so basically I'm exposed to people coughing in my face, breathing in my face all the time and, as a result, I'm much more likely to pick up an infection if I am low, right, if my immune system is low.
Speaker 1:Now the question is, how did it happen? Because I'm, you know, fit well, fairly, you know, I'm 29, I'm young, I'm active, I've just joined the gym, so I couldn't even bloody go to the gym because obviously I'm sick and I don't have any previous lung conditions. Now I put this down to basically, I'm going through currently a weight loss journey. Right, if you haven't heard about my weight loss journey, you have to go check out my YouTube channel, or I did a podcast called an intimate glimpse into my weight loss journey or something like that, where I talked about it and basically what's been happening is I've been losing weight really, really quickly because I'm on this medication that stops me from eating, stops me from being hungry, actually, I should say. Now, as a result, I've gotten to the point where I'm eating so little that, because I'm just not hungry and I don't want it, I'm eating so little that I have stopped losing weight and my body is like shut down basically.
Speaker 1:Now I think, personally my body is like struggling, like what are you doing to me? You absolute bitch. So I think, oh sorry, I just ate food as part of my healing mission and it's like absolutely going mental, like get out of here. Oh God, it's really like fucking with my system. So basically, I'm on my gov and it slows your stomach emptying and, as a result, firstly, you get all these fucking hiccups and nausea and you're just not hungry Like I. Honestly, it's not necessarily I feel really sick, like I do feel sick, but like not super sick. But the main thing is I just don't want to eat. I'm just like I don't want to eat anything, like I don't Not even like chocolate, not nothing. I don't want to eat any food, nothing whatsoever.
Speaker 1:So here I am forcing myself to eat food. I'm trying to get three meals a day and like because, basically, my weight loss has stopped and my I'm going to make a video on it. But my theory is that it's because my body is like shut down, basically because it's there's not enough calories for it. So it's like ah, what are you doing. Lady. I need more, please. So it's basically shut down everything that it thinks is not necessary. So my period stopped, apparently, my immune system stopped and basically my weight loss is like fucking ground to a halt, like absolute ground to a halt. So that's kind of sad, because I was doing so well. It was honestly like like it was too good to be true. You know, it was absolutely flying down 10 kilos super quickly and then it just fucking stopped and it was like no. So I am trying to eat more calories to try and get over that and currently it's not working. But I'm also trying to get over this and it's not been very long. So we'll. We'll wait and see.
Speaker 1:Now, the last time this happened, basically I got something called tracheitis when I had my eating issues in when I was like 16, 17,. I did an episode on that as well. Yeah, I know I've divulged pretty much all of my fucking life on the internet and basically my weight loss was like, so, like really significant and I wasn't eating enough. But that was like out of choice. That wasn't like a medication stopping me. That was like no, I'm trying to lose weight, although I am still trying to lose weight, but that was like a. I was hungry but I was like, no, we're not eating today. Well, I would eat today, but like we're not eating more. And the thing was I was obviously my body was like undernourished again because it was.
Speaker 1:I got this chest infection, tracheitis, and I had to go to the doctor in the end because it took me two weeks to get over that. I was like I really wanted to go to the gym because that was my social life as well as like just wanting to, you know, keep up my fitness and lose weight, of course. But and I couldn't go and I got to the point where I was just like, do you know what? I'm not getting better. So I went to the GP, they gave me some antibiotics and within like two days I was pretty much better and I was like, oh, thank god for that. So I haven't yet gone to the doctor about this, and I will explain why in a bit.
Speaker 1:So how am I healing? Well, firstly, no exercise. I've already told you that. So basically, what happens when you have an infection and you exercise is your immune system actually goes lower. I can't exactly remember why, like the real specifics, but your immune system lowers down. So the thing I don't want is for my immune system to go even lower.
Speaker 1:The other thing is, I'm probably not going to enjoy it if I feel like shit, like I'm not going to like be having a good time. I'm going to be like, and also, whilst it might be good to like cough up all of that shit, it's not going to be good for like being at the gym coughing. Everyone else is like, ew, she's gross, she's coughing everywhere. Why is she here? And I just don't think it would be a very pleasurable experience. And I feel like, for me, going to the gym is not just about exercising, it's about having a good time as well. Like, if so, if I'm not having a good time, it's like well, what am I really doing? I don't know.
Speaker 1:So I've been eating more, I've been exercising less. So you might think, well, how is door not put on weight? Well, the thing is I'm actually eating more, but still not eating more than I need to put on weight, if you get what I mean. Because I'm still like trying to force myself to eat. I'm still like, oh, don't want to eat anything. I'm literally like, right, come on, do it. You've got to go and eat something, because I can't tell that I'm hungry. I'm just like meh. So, um, yeah, I'm eating more. I'm not exercising for the moment.
Speaker 1:I actually think my illness started the day after I did a hot yoga session. I don't know if that's a correlation, like whether the hot environment like the bacteria or whatever. We're loving it, and we did like yoga, so I was deep breathing, so we were like like breathing all of these bacteria into my chest and then they were just having a good time because I felt kind of okay before that. And then, yeah, then it really hit me the next day. So, but I also think it's probably because you know if you're not eating enough, your immune system's lower. If you're exercising, your immune system's lower. If you're in like a hot, sweaty room with loads of other people, there's probably more bacteria around. Then I work at the hospital, so there's more bacteria. It's literally just like all of these things. So I'm not doing those two things.
Speaker 1:I'm also having regular LEMSYPS. Now other brands are available, but I have LEMSYPS probably two or three times a day. We've got Paracetamol in. That's mainly the reason why, but also because I could just take Paracetamol and that would be fine. But I kind of like the ritual of having a hot drink and having a LEMSYP. It's got lemon in it and it's kind of tasty, but not really not like awful. It's like kind of refreshing, but also it's like a cup of liquid which I feel like I would struggle. I'm like struggling to drink enough and eat enough at the moment. So you know, getting more liquid down is always a good idea. So that is another. That's two and one there Paracetamol, lemsyps and fluids Like that was also.
Speaker 1:One of my other points is try and drink more. I'm trying to drink more fluids. In fact, I'm going to have some right now. I bought this bottle in because a couple of episodes ago I knocked over my whole water bottle and this one is not as top heavy as the other one, so I think that's why the other one was falling over so much. Another thing I'm actually going to have some right now.
Speaker 1:Now you shouldn't actually have this if you've got a productive cough. It's Codeine Linctus. It's got Codeine phosphate in it. It kind of tastes like shit, but it's okay. We can deal with it. Now, because I'm naughty. I am going to have some, even though my cough is productive and I know it's a bad idea, which is why I'm not recommending it, but it's almost impossible to sleep when you have a cough, so, and sleep is like a necessity, right. So I am also not measuring it. It's fine, I would do it for my patients, but not for me. It kind of tastes like orange. There we go. I think that was probably about a teaspoon 15 milligrams of codeine in it Crazy, which is quite a lot. I'm really surprised that they sell this because, firstly, it's literally got basically morphine in it, but you know not quite, and also you could drink that whole thing like that must be so much codeine in it. So I really I don't quite know how they're getting away with selling that. But yeah, I guess you sell any medication, don't you? And just hope that people don't overdose on it.
Speaker 1:Finally, one of my other things, and I've been trying to avoid, obviously, going to the gym, but I really want to go to a seat steam room because it's so good at like loosening everything in your airways. Now, obviously I haven't gone, but what you can do is steam at home, and that's what I've been doing is having a hot shower, steaming my airways out and coughing up all the stuff because it basically loosens it. It's quite nice to do in the morning, as you probably know by now, guys, don't you? Yeah, I'm quite a mucousy person, apparently, and probably because I'm chronically dehydrated, and the good thing about having a shower in the morning is it loosens it all up and you just fucking snot it all out and you blow it all out in the shower and it's great, it's so good.
Speaker 1:I just remembered, I just had a thought that I am going, when I'm gonna go to Bali, to this like yoga retreat. I've got an outdoor shower and I'm so like an outdoor bathroom and I'm so looking forward to it, so that's gonna be a great time. Oh god, apparently there's insects in there, though, so I'm a little bit scared about that, but because I don't love insects, especially cockroaches, so mainly because they move so quickly, have you ever seen a cockroach move? It's like bang, bang, bang. It's like fucking rapid. Like when I lived in Greece, they would move so quickly. Anyway, yeah, hot showers. Maybe you can like steam with a bit of like eucalyptus. That loosens things up and it's really refreshing, but not too much. You don't want to burn your eyes out with eucalyptus oil.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, I guess the next thing is do I go to the doctor for antibiotics. I've thought about this and I'm thinking I might put in an e-console which is like an online form. I might do that tonight, actually, because, whilst I feel like I'm getting better, what I don't want to do is be one of those people that, like I did last time a bit of a martyr, where I waited it out, waited out, waited out for two weeks didn't get better. To be fair, though, I got much worse when I was younger, and I do feel like I am getting better, but I could just not pick up the prescription. I don't know. I might also they might also say you don't need them. So it's really hard, because you don't want to like waste people's time, but you also don't want to get to the weekend and then be like, oh well, um, I'm fucked, so I might just do it and then see what happens, but I think you know I am antibiotic worthy that would be my impression, because I'm coughing up yellow sputum. So there we go. I feel like if somebody came in and said to me they were coughing up yellow sputum from their chest, so to give them antibiotics. But yeah, I don't know, it's hard because I want to do nothing, but I also I want to have them there, just in case you know, over the weekend do I want to start them anyway, guys, I think that's gonna be it. 20 minute quick boy pretty quick boy, that one and I'm gonna leave it there. I'm gonna go and relax.
Speaker 1:I've done three podcasts in one day, not so crazy, but trying to get ahead of the game. We've got people coming this weekend and working this weekend, so you know, trying to get get your head in the game. Anyway, thanks so much for listening. I hope you're recovering from your chest infection, if you've got one too. And yeah, thanks so much for listening. If you like to give it a like five star rating on wherever you listen to, podcasts I upload every Monday and Thursdays basically explain things that are going wrong in my life and now I'm making them better and doing like lifestyle stuff. You know, self-improvement, mental health and health and well-being, fitness, etc. So this has been Paxie Positivity. I've been your host, dawn, and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks so much, guys. Bye, my bacteria laden kiss, which I'm sure you appreciate.
