Oh, crumbs!

[Wheezycat]

I am due to leave early Sunday morning for a conference centre in north Ireland, and I will be there for 5 days. But I got a slight cold. No worries, but it has triggered my asthma a bit. So far, if I was not going away, I would monitor but not be concerned, not at this stage. I am feeling slightly breathless, and my peak flow is down, but not by much. My worry is what way it is travelling. So far my peak flow is on a downward path as it were, and obviously I have no idea how far it will go. So now I don’t know what to do, to go or not to go. I have today, and tomorrow, to decide. The thought of being at the conference centre, getting worse and needing prednisolone, maybe, fills me with dread. It is about not meeting this in my own bed, in my own home environment. So today I will have a shall I/shan’t I kind of day. Not enjoying it.

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

If you don’t have a box of emergency pred to take with you try and get in to your GP today, explain the situation and ask for one (you may even be able to do over phone). That way you have it if needed but can still go away. Of course take everything with you if you go (plan and meds etc) so in the unlikely event you land up needing extra help you have it with you. On the plus you can still accesss the NHS in NI 😉.

(At least that’s what I’d do) good luck with whatever you decide to do and hope you feel better soon.

[Wheezycat in reply to EmmaF91]

Thank you, Emma! I do actually have a rescue pack, and though one or two have queried it, I have hung onto it. I have also ‘circulated’ the packs when I get a prescription for something acute so they should be well within date. I hope. Must check. They are well travelled as they go where I go just in case.

I spoke to Asthma U.K. today and was told, helpfully, that the guideline is to start taking them if you go below 60%, though I am pretty sure I have generally got them sooner than that. Across the day today I have realised my biggest ‘worry’ is the thought of being ill away from home, not being able to have access to a cup of tea next to me in bed, not having access to trivia that I take to when unwell. And the programme of the conference is pretty packed. My energy to just keep going whatever is not as great as it used to be when younger - and I have had a couple of bad experience, asthma wise, due to my seemingly stoical insistence to just carry on regardless, in denial of my issues. I am leaning to not going, but not made a final decision, and feel surprisingly little disappointment over it.