Hi everyone
Having had some truely terrible hospital experiences (and posted them on here), I thought I’d post about my most recent trip, which was about 90% positive ☺️
I’d been twitchy since last Saturday (ended up not being able to get out of bed without needing to nebulise/ventolin) due to a 7hr round journey to my new specialist hosp the day before. I managed to get myself out of danger and took it slow, however my lungs didn’t forgive me for not giving them enough attention 😅🙈. Even spoke to my local AN team on Tuesday who informed me I sounded bad, so they’d expect me in within the week 😅. This lead to a few days of needing my ventolin a lot more (but not my nebuliser!) so assumed I was through the worst of it and avoided hosp. NOPE! Tweedle gasp and tweedle wheeze were just bidding their time til my day off on Friday 🙄😫.
I had a nurse appt at my new GP surgery to register my repeat prescription (😱 so many drugs), and I was very helpfully told I didn’t sound great and then sent home (PF at 40ish%) 🙄. Nebbed when I got home, but dropped again about 2hrs later, to the point I was gasping (I foolishly went to check my gas meter 😅). Another neb then rang 999 when I could actually string a few words together 😝. Ended up with a rapid response paramedic who arrived and ordered the big ambo (I now live over an hour from the nearest hosp 🤦♀️). Cue LOTS of nebs, and a chat about asthma with the para whilst we waited. He’s niece has severe asthma so he was very knowledgeable- knew HR issues where the asthma, not the meds, knew not ever asthmatic wheezed etc etc. And he could even ID the fact I had the beginnings of silent chest (upper lobes had very limited air exit). Other than being told I should have rung earlier 😳, it was a pleasant experience (he didn’t understand that if I rung every time I hit 10 puffs/neb level they’d be at mine every week 🙄). He did point out that is usually the ones who needed it that felt guilty for ringing 999, which isn’t great for asthmatics 😅 (so guys if you really feel like you need to - do it!)
Eventually got to the hospital 90ish mins after I called 999. A couple of blips in the journey in, once when I started to flare as had been without a neb for 30ish mind, and another when my BP came up as 90/66 twice - causing us to stop and get a manual read - 140/90 - broken machine there I think 😅
Arrived to the ambo drop off, bloods chest X-ray then transferred to the majors waiting room (via the outside so lungs were unimpressed eventually leading to another neb). Worst part of the day was the a&e doc who told me I was fine and BT and X-ray were clear and I wasn’t wheezing (which I don’t do at the moment). Got given a slightly condescending lecture about wrapping up warm as the weathers currently not great for asthmatics (🙄 almost like I’ve never had an asthma attack before or like I haven’t had severe asthma for 3 going 4 years). He couldn’t explain why the nebs weren’t lasting (cause they don’t when I’m bad, I just bounce in and out of red, once I actually get to yellow 😅), decided I wasn’t bad enough for hydrocortisone (despite this being my usual plan of action which will let me maintain) and only grudgingly admitted me when he discovered I lived alone. This was all going on at 11pm-ish. After another neb I sat in for the wait. 2 am started to get twitchy but I was told transport to amu was imminent so delayed the neb and just used ventolin. Didn’t get to amu til 3am and discovered I had nothing prescribed til the duty doc came round so I just dug out the vent again and puffed away (I was back at 45% 🙄).
Duty doc comes round at 5ish, and I seriously lucked out as he’s usually a reg in the resp department!!! He agreed to give me 200 hydrocortisone to stop me yo-yoing as was back just below 50% again (he agreed that after 20ml of salb nebs, 16 ventolin and 2x atro in 10ish hours we were flogging a dead horse)! Also said regular nebs and suggested admission over the weekend 🙄. Agreed to me only raising pred to 30mg as I get less side effects then (I will go to 40 if I’m put in resus or need mag) plus I get a 10 day reduction in my wean 😅.
Due to hospital life I didn’t get the hydro til the morning med round at 8 and he had forgotten the nebs, but I was happy to try and maintain on ventolin so I could get out earlier. Saw a cons (not mine) at 10.30 who seemed desperate to empty beds 😅. I happily agreed to go home as the hydro had done the job and I was now maintaining at about 70% just on ventolin. I also wanted to avoid the flu/chest infections that seemed to be everywhere! Some confusion as I was/wasn’t/was/wasn’t being transferred to the resp ward but eventually left just after lunch with the promise of my discharge letter in the post. 😂
So all in all a good experience (if you can call needing hospital such). Minor blip with the a&e doc (and the knowledge that had I had the hydro when I got to the hosp, I probs wouldn’t have been admitted!) but all other medics I came into contact with were brilliant! Now I get a day and a half to recover enough for work on Monday (yes, I know, but I’m self employed so no work=no money and my not-boss knows what went down so will give me an easy day I hope 🤞🏻).
Hope you’re all doing as well as you can be at this time of year. With all the negative experiences out there, had anyone else had a really good experience or a staff member that’s been particularly good?
Ps just woken up after a 6hr nap... I only caught 2 15min catnaps last night 😅😴😴😴
Home, but it's hard..
