I Need To Take Things Seriously...

That seems to be the biggest lesson life has been teaching me. Even though just lately things had slowed down and my asthma was being a bit more well behaved like it used to be. I think I started getting cocky and thinking that now I had got to the end of a bad place and I started being irresponsible. I know I should have gone in on Saturday when I was really not quite right, but I had kind of convinced myself that it was just a phase. It would be OK soon. And that was bad.

By yesterday morning, I knew something wasn't right. I couldn't feel my right lung doing anything, and it felt like there was something really wrong. I was in more pain than I had been for a long time and I couldn't walk further than the bedroom and back without feeling short of breath and wheezing. I was trying every measure I had available to me, from nebbing regularly (I was on hourly nebs in the end) to just trying relaxation techniques that doctors had suggested years ago (forgetting that the particular doctor hadn't got a clue and even admitted he was wrong) and eventually I had to give in.

Tom was fantastic, he came to me, called an ambulance and he helped where he could. The first paramedic couldn't decide what was going on, first my chest was clear, then she decided I was a tiny bit wheezy, then she decided as my SATs dropped to 92% that maybe I was having an asthma attack. By this point the other crew were there. And they knew right away. Time wasn't wasted and by the time I arrived at hospital, I remember speaking to the sister and she decided within a minute of me being there that I needed to be taken straight through to Resus.

This is only the 2nd time that that has ever happened and I have been taken in to there. This time, although I didn't nearly arrest, I was definitely in a bad way and I needed to be seen right away. While the doctor was looking after me, I remember a nurse coming in and asking how long he would be as another of his patients was wondering how long she would wait for her stitches. I nearly laughed when he turned around to the nurse and said "Tell her she has to wait, I am dealing with a patient who is short of breath and is fighting for her life!"

I must have been falling asleep because the next thing I remember it was nearly an hour later and I was still in Resus, but my mask was changed from a nebuliser to a Non-Rebreathe mask. I just remember being so comfortable and wanting to nap. I was exhausted. The culprit? A pneumonia that I had a few weeks back had not cleared completely and had come back with vengeance. So now I am home, with 7 days of 40mg pred, 500mg Clarithromycin and 500/125mg Co-Amoxiclav and strict orders to get some rest and recover.

Loves
Wendy xx