Hi!
I m never good at judging of when to go and when not to. If I go its always one of the 2 situations either I come too late and need itu or too early and they just send me home telling me to use more of my inhalers. So how do u judge? Do u wait till ur family just gets fed up n rings the ambulance anyway or do u just go n deal with wathever u get told by the drs?
There's never a too early, but there's definitely a too late. Posts like this worry me. Not only because of the person who is writing it is clearly in distress, but also because of other people reading it may think it's ok to push it. If you're worried get medical help. Really you should be following auk guidelines if when help is needed. Hospital isn't only about getting high levels of treatment, but about being safe and monitored. We can't really advise on here about when it's time.
Sorry, posts like this irritate me. Asthma kills and they are dangerous for the person writing them and for people reading them.
When I was new to this asthma lark I was very unsure about when I should be asking for help and I know now that there was a period of several weeks when I should have called an ambulance almost daily. I didn't, partly due to lack of information and direction from my GP and mostly due to my upbringing, which along the lines of 'I can't see anything wrong you're imagining it. Stop making a lot of fuss about nothing'. It is amazing what a powerful inhibition this attitude instils in people and how hard it is to overcome.
The fact that I now know better is due to the help, information and encouragement that people using this site gave me.
Yasmin, Laurs is right to worry about you. Please talk to your asthma nurse and get an asthma plan that will help you to know when to ask for help. Don't leave it to chance.
Thanks for ur replies. But no need to worry the only thing is I created a plan with my cons but they never follow it! It says take 1 tablet of uniphyllin but cons says take 2? Then it says take steroids if peak flow falls and get to see a dr well that doesnt happen either. Finally it says go to hospital if peak flow is very low but they usually send me home and tell me to use more of the salbutamol and they give me an extra inhaler then after few hours get too bad and they tell me why I didnt come earlier? So never time it properly? . Its the fact that one person says one thing the other another thing. So I dont actually use my plan. And gp too very not cooperative with my drs she gets letters saying they should give me certain medicines on prescription but they dont . So feel a bit lost with this issue.
Until your consultant, GP and A&E all understand each other you're on a hiding to nothing. Could you take a copy of your asthma plan with you when you go to A&E? And maybe you need to tell your GP what you've told us and ask for a bit more co-operation between the surgery and your consultant If it isn't forthcoming them maybe you need to change your GP.
I hope things improve for you.
Hi,
Like Annista says maybe you need to let your cons and GP know the situation you are in but I also wanted to add that if you are thinking you need to go to A&E then you probably do. I've had times when my peak flow was low but my GP was quite dismissive of me so now I take my plan and say ""according to this (which was written by my cons) I need to come here"" which they can't argue with. Speaking from experience, timing can be a nightmare especially as my peak flow doesn't always drop and I have gone away from OOH feeling like a fool for going when lots of salbutamol was stopping me wheeze and my SATs were ok despite still coughing and quite tight chested which was getting worse (our OOH is part of the ED). However, a few months ago I was sat at home really struggling with an ok peak flow literally waiting for it to drop. It didn't but I decided to go anyway - my SATs were 84% and I needed magnesium etc before going to HDU. After this I had a rather teary conversation with my asthma nurse who said I should have trusted my instincts and gone before it got so bad. After all, A&E would prefer to see you before it gets bad and it can get a lot worse very quickly.
I hope this helps in some way but I would speak to someone about your concerns - if only for reassurance.
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