Aw, thanks Katie, the pleurisy has cleared up now and I have asthma....I have just been sitting here, my daughter having brought home my prescription of a reliever inhaler, reading the leaflet inside the box before I take my first puff...and it says that each puff contains 9mg of alcohol!!! I don't drink! Maybe I will be weaving about on my bike when I go back to work on Monday!!!!

I have been off work since Wednesday 18th January and it is a horrible thought having to go back as there will be so much piled up to do I will be demented....made worse, I think, by the fact that my asthma seems to have come on over a period of a few months when I thought the tight chest feelings I had were caused by stress, looks like the stress was the trigger and all the time it was asthma coming on!! I know so little about it and it worries me not knowing.

I have a very stressful job and it involves lots of heavy lifting and running around and there are only two girls in the office, and we both have loads to do and not much time to do it in....I may have to think about looking for something less stressful!

Thanks for asking, my friend, it is nice to know you care

Oh Lizzie, do take care with lifting etc. Your employers have a duty of care towards their staff, so do speak to them about helping you to continue doing your job.

I can only imagine how frightening it must feel to experience tight feelings in the chest; but I know you're a strong soul. ;-)

Keep up the healthy eating - I've managed to only fall off the wagon once: I gave in to fish and chips a few days ago!!! But I'm back on track again and I've lost 7 lbs so far.

Mind how you go, Lizzie - I'm thinking of you.

Good girl!! Katie, that is wonderful losing 7lbs...a real achievement, you should be very proud of yourself...as for falling off the wagon...well, since I gave up chocolate and cheese I have had none of either, and my snacking has been much healthier, but I tend to go for bananas and nuts now and am feeling a little like swinging from tree to tree, if I had the energy!! Do you remember that Annie Lennox song..."I need to swing from limb to limb, to relieve this mess I'm in!!!" that is about the strength of it, really!

Fish and chips are fine, and if you have a little treat now and again, you are fine, too. I am having mostly simple things like chicken and fish and vegetables....but I did not weigh myself to start with, although I have noticed my waistband is a little loose, it is just that I have had no exercise at all for a week and a half just fingertips tapping!! but of course, that doesn't burn off much in the way of calories.

My husband is helping me to start a programme of Tai Chi which helps with both mind and body...so maybe I am not ready for the scrap heap yet!! It is said to be much gentler than all that leaping about aerobic stuff! LOL

Love your avatar, by the way, what a cute little face!!!

LizzieAnn we could have poll whether you should have winter flu jab lol

Could set up a nag group till you get the jab

I understand Ros, and thanks....I do need to take myself in hand!! Any extra info on asthma would be nice, though, as I need to learn how to manage my condition, and it is not easy.

Aw, take care Lizzie - my daughter has had asthma since she was tiny, but she has it under control now. I think you need to be extra careful when you have a cold as that triggers my daughter's asthma off. Does your Dr's surgery have an asthma nurse as they can be very helpful towards managing your condition.

Thanks Fi, my daughter has asthma too, but her condition oddly is nothing like mine...her trigger is the cold weather...she gets very wheezy in the cold Scottish winters! fortunately this year they have been fairly mild so far....we had a peak flow meter contest and she got 400 and I only got 250 so I am less of a windbag than her!! LOL

We do have an asthma nurse, but I have made up a table and will take peak flow meter readings each day to monitor things and then I am told to go back to the doctor in a month...isn't that quite a long time hence?....so that they can see how things are coming.

Is your daughter limited in what she can do, Fi? My daughter seems to have hers totally under control and can do lots of things, but I cycle every day and am slightly worried about that.

She is only limited by being lazy and a teenager - cycling should help it as not exercising makes it worse if you know what I mean.

Not meaning to worry you, but she has ended up in ICU a couple of times, but that was when she was younger and she seems to be "growing out of it".

Hopefully it will stay mild for your daughter.

Thanks, Fi, she was diagnosed when she was 2 and a half years old and will be 21 next week so she is not little anymore...but she has never really had it seriously, whereas I am afraid I think mine is!

Maybe I might grow out of it too....by the time I am 90 perhaps?! LOL