OK, I’m beginning to stop coughing quite so hard
now.
What I want are opinions on two questions:
if you’re getting a chest cold, does playing the flute
make it worse? Drive the infection deeper?
if you’re getting over one, does playing flute
slow recovery?
I wonder what professional woodwind players
do, in orchestras, etc. They can’t afford not
to work for a month or so till the cough
goes away completely.
Subjective impressions welcome. Thanks
Subjective impression: breathing=good, not breathing=not good. Flute playing=robust, controlled breathing=very good.
OTOH, it can’t be easy to play well with that going on. I haven’t had bronchitis in some years now, but when I did, my focus was on deep, controlled breathing with a spot of guaifenesin syrup to help the lungs clear, and some ibuprofen for the inflammation. I never got worse for it, and was able to ride it out. Did all this actually make me better faster? I don’t know. I’m no physician, but intuition told me that such choices made sense. I’d still go at it that way as it seemed to do the job. Again, I never got worse for it.
Bronchitis is a real bummer. Glad to hear yours is on the wane, Jim.
Oh, yeah, one more thing:
Miso soup is thought to help keep the lungs free of detritus. My preference is for hatchō (very dark, chocolatey) or mugi (made of barley, somewhat bitter but tasty).
Get well soon!
Asked a good friend working as a physician at an Intensive Care Unit. He says:
The best to prevent you from getting a bacterial superinfection or pneumonia is to breath deeply and do the expiration against a resistance (results in positive expiratory pressure = PEEP) - so: blow the flute!
And drink enough. But with high fever you should stay in bed:
You could tumble and fall and get a fracture of your arm (bad) or (worse 
) of your flute!
Forgive me the joke - I really hope you will be in good health soon.
Thanks for the joke.
There’s little hope of playing well in this state,
but there wasn’t much anyway.
So far the only thing that works
is vodka, straight, at 3 in the morning.
I keep the vodka in the freezer.
My wife helps me find my way
out of the kitchen.
Thanks.
It doesn’t make sense to play flute when breathing is painful. Have a little patience. My advice: take a rest for 1-2 days, take ambroxol (+ antibiotics if necessary) and then you should be able to enjoy flute playing again.
Thanks, Claudine. I haven’t played for a week, in fact.
It’s just a stupid viral thing. I’m on the mend, actually
got some exercise today. But patience is good advice.
I didn’t even want to open this thread, having gotten over a bad bout of viral bronchitis myself back in April and May. My doctor said that the thing that patients need most and do the least is rest.
I would think that playing flute is not resting, since your lungs are working when they should be recovering. I didn’t play for almost 2 weeks, but I think it definitely helped. Also, drinking lots of fluids and breathing in a nice steamy shower helped loosen the gunk to get it out of my system.
I was a professional woodwind player when I had my wisdom teeth out and couldn’t play for 3 weeks. But I was lucky – the Navy kept paying me. 
Get better soon!!
Linda S.
madfifer9
Jim, I’m a respiratory therapist…my suggestion would be to play as much as you can comfortably without getting worn out. As noted above, it is a good exercise for the lungs, just don’t overdo it - Tod
Thanks to all, much appreciated. Jim