Footprints and Fairy Dust

As promised on Sunday evening, normal service will slowly return to the blog this week. Emphasis on the slowly as this is the first time in the 24 hours since I arrived home from hospital that I have felt the energy to lift the lid of my sleepy laptop and throw myself into the www.

It is so so glad to be home… see definitely not normal yet! I cannot decide whether I am so so glad to be home or if it is indeed so so good to be home. I think in actual fact it is GOOD to be home, although as usual when faced with living independently after the secure confines of a ward and instant access to medical help, I have had my doubts over the glad to be home. Just walking to the bathroom or going to make a drink is a massive challenge and leaves me short of breath. There have been wobbly moments where I wish I didn’t live alone.

It was a kind of out of the blue admission for me and the first ‘just for asthma’ admission I’ve had for two years. For about a week I’d been feeling generally under the weather and grotty and suddenly came out in a cold on Friday. By Sunday am my chest was rattling and my inhaler lasting only a very short while. I think I have become so consumed by my other health problems in the last two years that my recently well controlled asthma did not worry me as much as perhaps it should have done. This is not to say I didn’t know I needed extra medical help or that I have become non-compliant in my asthma care, I’d just become so used to everything else being so much more prominent all of the time.

After a quick phone call to the Out of Hours GP service in my area I put myself in a taxi to be seen in the Out of Hours clinic adjacent to A + E. I knew I felt grotty but I’ve been there with my asthma many times before, and I expected the usual routine of brief medical history, run down of meds, check temp, pf, sats and listen to chest. Followed by a prescription for anti-biotics and steroids. Things moved much quicker than I expected and on arrival I was swiftly called through by a nurse who checked my sats and temperature and quickly put me on a nebuliser whilst she spoke to the medical admissions team about getting me admitted to hospital. My heart sank. Almost 9 months of desperate hard work to keep myself out of hospital. Prior to my big admission last July I had been in hospital no less than 19 times in 18 months so I’d done amazingly well. I realised by my sats and temperature and the concerned look on the nurses face that I was in the right place and that neb was definitely doing some good.

What was a much more pleasant experience was the admissions process which was all arranged by the nurse practicioner through OOH clinic and a bed was found and I was taken to the ward personally by the same nurse via a chest x ray. Such a smooth and reassuring process and the staff so kind and patient.

After 4 rough days I escaped with anti-biotics for a chest and severe sinus infection and an extra supply of steroids for the next few days. Lots of regular nebulisers had helped calm the twitchyness of my airways but only if I stay still and rest! My consultant is happy with my progress and I am happy with my bed!

Now to back track and work out what I have missed with my blog challenge. There have also been some big developments over in the book pile so watch this space.