I never thought that I would ever have to title a post that. But I thought I would explain to you why there has been and is going to be a few more changes around here…
I have spoken about in this post how the stresses of final year University was getting me down and last week it took a toll on my health. On Friday 11th I began suffering with a sore throat that didn’t affect me all that much, I went through working the weekend as normal, loosing my voice here and there, but generally feeling okay. Monday came and I was back at University as per, preparing for a big presentation on Wednesday morning and I had started to feel a little bit more poorly. I attended my presentation on Wednesday, coughed vigorously for the majority of it and made my way back home. My Mam had managed to get me a doctor’s appointment for the afternoon and off I went, only to be advised to ‘up my inhalers’ and sent back home.
I have been asthmatic since I was two. When I was younger it played a much bigger part in my life than it does now, I would have asthma attacks on a regular basis, it limited my physical activity and I would always have to carry my inhalers and spacer around in a little 101 Dalmatians lunch pack. As I’ve grown up, I thought I had in fact ‘grown out of it’ as most adults do, however the odd occasion of a minor attack (and I mean less than once a year) meant that I hadn’t.
The Thursday after my appointment I spent 95% of the day in bed, finding it difficult to sleep, coughing until my ribs felt bruised and feeling on a whole exhausted. I had finally fallen asleep at around 11pm but my body woke up around two hours later and did not feel like my own. My chest was tight, my heart rate fast and I was struggling to catch my own breath. I managed to walk across the hall to wake my Mam who rang the Out of Hours NHS Service who went through my symptoms and called for an ambulance (NOTE: It would have been quicker & easier to just phone 999). Four paramedics turned up to assist me in calming down my breathing and reducing my heart rate of which was hitting 140rpm. After around 40 minutes, the paramedics asked if I would prefer to stay at home (at this point I did) and suggested I return to my GP for something stronger than my inhalers as they did not believe it was related to my asthma. I know. What even?
My boyfriend managed to finish work early to take me to my doctor’s appointment on Friday afternoon and with one look at me, the doctor who had seen me only two days before rang for an ambulance. I was having great difficulty taking full breaths, my temperature was through the roof and on a whole I did not feel okay. I spent almost eight hours in a cubicle in A&E due to their being no beds available on a ward, seeing multiple doctors and nurses who were telling me different things. One minute I was staying the night, the next I wasn’t. I was given a nebulizer for around half an hour, along with multiple steroid tablets and codeine and also had a chest x-ray. My resting heart rate was 140/150rpm for hours on end and I wasn’t allowed to go home until it had reached and stayed below 100.
I was sent home shortly before midnight and given doses and doses of steroids and antibiotics to take over the next week. Although my x-ray was clear and oxygen levels stable, the Doctor had narrowed it down to an infection somewhere along the line and a respiratory issue further up my windpipe from my chest. Ever since I’ve been home I’ve been having good and bad days however each gets that little bit easier. I have managed to do a little bit of University work and am now writing a blog post (yay!) whilst sitting on a bed made on the sofa comforted by Netflix and ice-cream.
If you’re still here, then bloody hell, thanks for reading! It’s been a long one today. Purely down to the stresses of University and it actually taking an affect on my physical health, I have decided to change my blog schedule a little bit. Usually I post every other day, meaning there is only a one-day gap in between posts. From now until I finish on May 13th (around 6 weeks!) I will be posting with two days inbetween posts just to give myself a little bit more time to focus on what’s important – myself and my degree.
Thank you so much for all your super lovely messages on Twitter, they have made me smile from ear to ear. I hope you understand why I’m making this slight change for the time being and I really do hope that you’ll stick around too <3 Sending all my love.
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