Final waved the white flag 🏳️😅

[EmmaF91]

So after ignoring and putting up with my asthma for about a month and just treatment at home, I’ve finally given in and rung of an ambulance. I decide that when I couldn’t get my PF to maintain above 40% despite nebs I should probably seek help. 😅🤫

Great fun with the ambulance coordinator on the phone (first time I’ve had to ring not a friend as I’m alone) but got all the info through so 🤗. Very helpful tho so hopefully the paramedics will be just as good (and the hosp if they decide I need to go in 🤞🏻

[Eian59]

Hope it works out ok for you Emma. I was in last week at A and E nightmare.

Good luck.

[Melanie1989]

Good luck 🤞

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

4 nebs and counting (3 at home waiting, 1 in ambulance). Wheeze has cleared but PF hovering at 55%.

New hosp not sure what they’re going to do with me... more nebs or hydro or home? There’s a bed shortage in majors (surprise surprise) so I’m assuming I’ll be chaired soon 😅. Getting bloods and an X-ray (paramedics heard a crackle apparently 🙄). Oh the fun of having a great neb response - I just wish it would last! Now I have to wait for a drop until I can get something more ⏱

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to EmmaF91]

Feeling like a fraud, but PF now at 60% (so long as I don’t do anything). A&e referred me to the resp team about the possibility for admission tho as I’m still wobbly (it I walk my PF drops, if I go out side it drops etc etc). The ED doc thinks I’ll be admitted cause of my history plus I now live by myself and am 30-40mins from the hospital (by ambulance), so it’s now a wait and see what the resp team says. I’m definitely now at the level where I know I’d happily be at home (or work 😅).

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

Oh what fun! Guess the move was just too.much ugh. Hope the new place/new resp team is good and pays attention to your double-dipping habits! You just had to try out the new facilities didn't you?

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Lysistrata]

Yup. I had hoped that cause I was okish yesterday that I’d survived this house moved unscathed, but my lungs just wanted to try out the new facilities obviously 🙄.

Managed to maintain at 400 after all the nebs (for a couple hours) dropping to 350 after ‘exercise’. Then they cleaned a table and my lungs said no. Drop to 300 but now maintaining at 350. Waiting for AMU docs but ED docs were talking admission which is ridiculous cause (as always) I don’t feel like I need to be in, and all I’ve had is nebs so 🤷‍♀️. Discovered that I now live far enough away from the hosp that they had the air ambulance on standby too 😅. Luckily cause I respond so well to nebs it wasn’t needed! First hosp visit since starting mepo and everything feels different! Wheeze disappeared quite quickly, but my PF is holding out on me!

Everyone so far has been good just feeling a fraud cause ‘all’ I’ve needed is nebs (all of which were given before arrival to the hosp)

[Hidden in reply to EmmaF91]

I hope we all know that wheeze is not an accurate indicator of how you’re doing. The only real test is a highly trained nurse or physician listenito your chest. We may know if we’re wheezing, but a really good stethoscope in the hand of an expert is so much better. They can hear crackles. They can hear whether or not Air is moving. For three days in hospital they heard problems I couldn’t hear, but on the fourth day they could hear air moving well even though a wheeze was still there. There are all sorts of things they can tell that way.

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Lysistrata]

Ok... I’m definitely allergic to hospitals! Don’t know what or why but my eczema is now it play, plus tingly/itchy lips and tongue. Hoping I got to the antihistamine quick enough to avoid the hives and angioedema I got last time I was in a&e 🙄

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Lysistrata]

Admitted. This hosp a&e/amu is really good. Despite clear chest, I’m getting admitted as PF at 60% and ‘of course guidelines say you can’t go home until you’re above 75% and/or your 24hrs post neb’. Now if the resp team follows along with the whole experience I’ll be a very happy asthmatic who’ll recommend this hosp to all! Only issue was they struggled with getting my abg 🤕

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to EmmaF91]

Sounds promising though ugh to the hospital allergy! Has that resolved? I know the feeling a fraud thing, I still kind of believe half my admisisons don't count because I wasn't completely awful, and comments from cons didn't help that!

Hope resp team.are as good and you get out with things properly resolved. Ugh to the abg though...my hosp seems to have policy of not just doing them automatically, which is good when mine can be weird!

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Lysistrata]

Antihistamine kicked in in time so everything seems to have calmed down. I keep telling staff that I’m fine, but they’re like ‘are you being admitted?’ ‘Well...yes 😒’ ‘then you’re obvs not fine’ 😅. It’s the first time I can remember being told that I wasn’t good when I genuinely feel like I am... normally it’s the other way round in hospitals 😂

I only feel like an admission is legit is if I’ve ended up on hydro +/- a mag bag and am still wheezing afterwards.

My old hosp did vbg as standard for asthmatics then did an abg if vbg showed something off. This hosp didn’t do either (tho tbh I was no where near as bad as I usually am when I got here due to 4 nebs pre arrival). It was the amu doc which asked me if he could do 1. Not sure if standard or not for ‘bad on arrival’ asthmatics.

[Hidden in reply to EmmaF91]

That would be a huge problem for me because I have huge, off the wall lungs with tremendous spare capacity. At 75% I’m in trouble. I can’t get into asthma studies because I never fit their statistical rules.

[RD23]

Sorry to hear you’ve been bad, how are you doing now? I’ve got my phone registered so I can text for an ambulance if I need to, I’ve done it now several times so it works. I’ll see if I can find the link for how I did it in the first place and send it to you.

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to RD23]

Hi I have my phone registered for the text service already. I (and they) used it as a diagnostic tool as to how bad the attack was. They had the air ambulance on standby so I obvs sounded very bad 😅 - luckily I picked up in my home nebs (3 back to back) so just got an normal ambulance (my first one of these 💁‍♀️😅).

I’ve been waiting for my lungs to complain for a few weeks so I was expecting it. PF is now hovering at about 60% but no wheeze etc and only very mildly tight/SoB so 🤷‍♀️. Hoping for freedom tomorrow (as I’m really not that bad 😂) x

[RD23]

Ahh, that’s good then. Air ambulance, blimey!

Hopefully the peak flow improves so you can go home tomorrow. I hate that feeling when you know your chest just isn’t right and it’s only a matter of time.

Fingers crossed they let you go tomorrow xxx

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to RD23]

Air ambulance only cause I live so far away from the hosp. It took 30-40mins by ambulance, so I guess their thinking is if I was really bad I’d need to get in quicker than that 😅

Yes been at that level for a few weeks - the ‘I’m not right but I’m not bad enough to actually do anything’ level 😂

[RD23]

At least they’re on it and prepared, 30-40 mins is a long time when you’re wheezing.

I describe it as ‘my chest feels grizzly’

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to RD23]

I always correct them if they try to frame things as 'feeling wheezy' or 'how long were you wheezing'. I work in medical communications and consider that language is important - so if they see it as wheeze/no wheeze they're just going to expect something I can't provide lol! I like 'grizzly' - I also say I feel like a boa constrictor has taken up residence...

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Lysistrata]

I like to describe it as lungs wrapped in cling film when I’m feeling particularly tight 😅

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to EmmaF91]

When I have the breath I sometimes say my lungs have several personality disorders. My colleagues often ask how I am after my dramatic little episodes so I say the little $%^&*(s are biding their time and behaving well considering their antisocial tendencies.

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to Lysistrata]

🤣 love it

[RD23]

Or that feeling you get like there’s a block in your chest that you can’t push past. I like the boa constrictor one, I may use that, or I’ve said that it feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. Damn zoo! 😂

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador in reply to RD23]

They need to get their animals back under control!

[RD23 in reply to EmmaF91]

🤣🤣🤣

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to RD23]

I used to have a rating scale with some people I met through this forum a few years back: is Steve the Snake around or is his big brother James in the house?

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to RD23]

On a less zoological note, I also sometimes say I feel like a Victorian woman who's been very tightly laced in!

[RD23 in reply to Lysistrata]

Yes! When people ask me what’s it’s like to have an asthma attack my standard reply is (and I love to see the look on their face) ‘imagine someone is lacing you into a corset and pulling it really tight, at the same time they’re making you pinch your nose while you breathe through a straw and someone else is punching you in the ribs, that’s what it feels like’

And I always get, ‘😱 I never realised it was that bad’