Hi Barbara -
My life, at least most of it, has not felt stressful to me, because I have always had an amazing support system around me. Our diet has always been healthy, focused mainly on fruits, vegetables, beans, seeds, dairy, fish and moderate amounts of red meat.
But I do feel my bronchiectasis was the culmination of the many assaults, throughout my life, on my lungs. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that in every generation, we have had several severely asthmatic people, so heredity plays a big role. I grew up between a coal-fired power plant and heavy industry, near the railroad tracks in the "inner city". The tracks, backlots of the factories, and riverfront formed part of our playground as kids, and a lot of what we played on and around has since been banned as hazardous. The air quality left a lot to be desired, and several members of my family have always had lung issues as a result.