Discharge Instructions for Chronic Bronchitis

You have been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. With this condition, you cough up mucus for 3 months or more each year for at least 2 years in a row.

Home care

Here is how you can take care of yourself at home:

Quit smoking, if needed

If you smoke, get help to quit. This is the best thing you can do for your bronchitis and health.

• Try a stop-smoking program. There are even telephone and online programs.

• Ask your healthcare provider about medicines or other methods to help you quit.

• Ask family members to quit smoking as well.

• Don’t allow smoking in your home, in your car, or around you.

• Don't use e-cigarettes.

Protect yourself from infection

• Wash your hands often. Do your best to keep your hands away from your face. Most germs are spread from your hands to your mouth or nose.

• Ask your healthcare provider about the flu and pneumonia vaccines.

• Stay away from crowds. It's very important to do this in the winter when more people have colds and flu.

• Take care of your overall health. That means:

  • Getting about 8 hours of sleep every night

  • Exercising for at least 30 minutes on most days

  • Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains, lean meats and fish, and low-fat dairy products. Also, don't eat foods filled with fat and sugar.

  • Limiting the amount of alcohol you drink

Work with your healthcare provider

• Take your medicines exactly as directed. Don’t skip doses.

• Talk with your healthcare provider about ways to keep your mucus thin. Drinking a lot of water helps.

• Talk with your healthcare provider about long-term oxygen therapy. You may be asked to measure your oxygen levels with a small device that clips onto your finger called pulse oximetry. Your healthcare provider will instruct you when to use oxygen if needed if levels become too low.

• Ask your healthcare provider to show you pursed-lip breathing. It can help decrease shortness of breath.

• During each care visit, talk with your healthcare provider about your ability to:

  • Cope in your normal environment

  • Correctly use inhaler techniques (or your medicine delivery systems) to make sure you are doing them right

  • Cope with other health problems you may have, including the medicines you take for them and how they might affect your chronic bronchitis

• Find out about pulmonary rehab programs in your area. Ask your healthcare provider or local hospital. Also talk to your healthcare provider about a self-management program to help control your symptoms.

Follow-up care

Follow up with your healthcare provider as advised.

When to call your healthcare provider

Call your healthcare provider or seek medical care right away if you have any of these:

• Increased coughing

• Increased mucus

• Increased shortness of breath with the same or less activity

• Thick yellow, green, or bloody mucus

• Fever of 100.4ºF (38ºC) or higher, or as directed by your healthcare provider

• Chills

• Swollen ankles

Call 911

Call 911 if you have:

• Worsening shortness of breath, wheezing, or trouble breathing that doesn't get better with treatment

• Tightness in your chest that doesn't go away with your normal medicines, or as directed by your healthcare provider

• A new, irregular heartbeat or feeling that your heart is racing

• Trouble talking

• Feeling of lightheadedness or fainting

• Feeling of doom

• Skin turning blue, gray, or purple in color