Amber zone treatment

[Bethjbarrett]

Hi all

I am a brittle and severe asthmatic with a history of circa 10-14 admissions a year and multiple ICU admissions under my belt. Luckily, I’m relatively well between these flairs and am able to work.

My local hospital is great and the consultants and respiratory ward nurses and drs. work hard for me.

I respond well to Aminophylline IV (alongside hydrocortisone, magnesium, heliox and ketamine) on admission. I take theophylline (which my body struggles to absorb, nebs, antihistamines, prednisolone etc.) at home.

I now know my symptoms well enough to know 2-5 days before I have a big attack. I up my steroids at home and increase nebulisers myself. The problem I have is the next bit... I have to wait at home to get worse, bad enough for A&E and emergency treatment. What to do? Ideally I’d check myself in for a day or two on Aminophylline and avoid a two week admission. Saving major drama for my family and work... This just doesn’t seem to be an option.

Does anyone have any thoughts about some kind of middle ground treatment? What else can be done between ‘well’ and resus!?

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

Hi Beth

Are you under a specialist hospital or just your local? If not I’d definitely suggest asking for a referral!

I know my specialist hosp does ‘maintenance’ aminophylline treatments for some of the more severe asthmatics. They either have it booked for every x amount of weeks or they ring up when they know they start to need it.

Alternatively you could have a chat with your local hosp and ask if that’s an option. At my old local we came up with a plan where I could upas a&e and just turn up to amu for hydrocortisone therapy as an outpatient for a few days when I felt it was needed. It definitely cut down my admissions and allowed me to keep functioning at uni and work etc

It’s definitely worth breaching with your cons as part of your management plan!

Good luck and I hope you manage to get it sorted without needing to spiral to resus levels!