To begin with I had asthma...probably why I was totally useless at games when in school because I couldn't run...especially when beefy girls with big thighs were chasing me on the hockey field...
But I managed well enough...Mother didn't care for us being ill so she ignored me when I used to say I couldn't get my breath...after a while I didn't mention it anymore.
Moving to Norfolk was probably the worst move we've ever made...surrounded by fields of Oil-Seed Rape and Wheat, I used to spend nights sitting up in bed gasping until I had the wit to go to the local GP...he handed me one of those cardboard tubes to blow in...waited patiently while I went scarlet with the effort and wrote out a prescription for a Ventolin inhaler...
Well...I thought I was in heaven...so long as I had my inhaler safe in my pocket I was grand.
I'd have a couple of puffs before carrying the clean linen upstairs or walking on the beach and managed well for the next eight or nine years. Never had any more tests and the inhalers were on a repeat prescription...
Then we moved here to Ireland and I found a reasonable Doctor who simply carried on where the English Doctor had left off...inhalers every three months and very rarely he'd hand me the cardboard tube...
It was when I caught an ordinary common cold...the sniffles and blocked nose and feeling rotten sort of a cold four years ago, that everything turned upside down...this was a different sort of difficulty to breathe...sent straight to hospital I thought they'd give me a quick blast on a nebuliser and I'd go back home...instead there followed days in bed on oxygen and feeling as weak as a kitten...intravenous anti-biotics that made me weep copiously...but...no advice...no x-rays... no suggestions about exercise...nothing.
It wasn't until I collapsed in a spectacular sort of fashion two years later and the ambulance men took me to a different hospital because it was closer, that all was revealed...a quite mad Consultant appeared at my bedside, once I was on a ward, and plonked herself down on my bed...all jangly earrings and a huge goofy smile...she told me tales about her birthing her first baby when she admitted to screaming the place down...about her husband, who'd been the man who fought to put a breathing tube down my throat...he'd been to see me while I was in the ICU...a lovely kind man...and then she introduced the plain fact of my having COPD...she explained clearly and concisely and told me I'd be meeting with anyone and everyone who could possibly help...
For the next ten days I had bloods taken and chest x-rays...the dietician came and the physio...a nice old chap brought me a wooden walking stick...the highly harassed stop smoking lady came...told me the Doctors were the very worst for giving up the dreaded weed...I was attached to machines that bleeped all night long and kept everyone awake...and more machines that cost the earth and didn't work.
Several weeks after being discharged I received an explanatory leaflet and accompanying letter from another Consultant telling me I had the genetic form of COPD...some of the blood tests had revealed it.
Now I have that Consultant, rather than the eccentric Kathy who flirted outrageously with the young men in her team and wafted a cloud of expensive perfume in her wake, she was prone to suddenly swoop on me with a hug...while her handsome young men from all corners of the world shuffled their feet and smiled...perhaps they were wishing it was them...
Suddenly the GP takes me seriously...he's grand but I always had a sneaking suspicion he thought I was 'putting it on'...now he carries my oxygen bottle and says to call him at anytime. He asks after the donkeys and shows me photos of his dog on his 'phone...
Wow,that was some journey,I wonder why it was not picked up earlier? Perhaps it could have been slowed down had they found it earlier,or is the genetic type a different thing altogether.?
The genetic thing is fairly new I think...it makes no difference to the COPD...just means you're pre-disposed to getting it even if you've never smoked or had lung problems before...bit of a bummer actually.
Ahhhh,yes I had read about that on fact sheet the doctors give you, it makes you wonder how many people are walking about with lung problems and are not bothering to get checked out.
Hi Vashti, great read once again. Its amazing what you have to do to prove your ill to some people isn't it, I had spent 2 1/2 months in ICU and was recovering on the wards.
I was an extremely out of breath walking skeleton when a nurse of 13 years experience roughed me up a bit and told me I was faking it because I was a struggling to get off my chair and back on the bed. Obviously she knew so much more than the many people who had fought very very hard to keep me in the land of the living. .
Oh yeh' can you send eccentric Kathy to Worcester Hospital so she can flirt with me, she sounds like fun.
Hi Vashti. I wonder why the medical profession doesn't believe what people say. I was ill and in pain for years before anyone would accept there really was something wrong. I ended up with an emergency operation. Do you think it's because we don't complain enough and are too brave? I'm ok now thankfully. X
I do think we tend to be nervous around the medical profession...after all they Must know what they're talking about...mustn't they...is our attitude and we are a bit scared of standing up for ourselves maybe.
I think quite a lot of us have similar stories - starting with asthma (just get on with it - are you trying to get of sports girl!!) type of thinking. Thank goodness things have
Another fascinating story vashti and I had a little smile about your mother because mine was very similar. She had no time for doctors and moaning about illness, you just had to get on with things. I think she told me I had growing pains from aged 5 and then probably rheumatism too. Oh well, I am doing ok and just caring in the best way I can for Pete who is the one with the sarcoidosis (never heard of it back then and doctors still do not know how to deal with it) COPD (not genetic though), osteoporosis (steroids!) and now prolapsed disc and no, he still does not have a date for the spinal cord stimulator to be fitted. What can you do? I am really glad you are still here even though it took forever to diagnose you properly and glad your GP shows you some respect and concern now.
You take good care and stay as well as you can. You often make my day with your stories and I marvel at them. xxxxx
I'd never heard of COPD and had to ask what it meant...the genetic link doesn't make any difference to the signs, symptoms and treatment...just means you are pre-disposed to getting it...lol... a cheering thought!
GP has always been ok...but rather dismissive. Now he's let me have a rescue pack...told me to 'phone the minute I feel unwell...says he'll visit me at home if I can't make it to the surgery...a huge change in his attitude.
As for poor Pete...goodness knows...keep pestering until someone takes notice I suppose...often easier said than done xx
Vashti, hugs 🙌😘 you are marvellous to have soldered on the way you have, because my daughter and the big fella has asthma since childhood, I know how horribly alarming and frightening it can be! When I was a kid I did a run,hop,skip and jump and landed heavily on my spine , I could barely sit down for weeks it was agony but they all thought I was putting it on, my own fault really as when I had a polio jab in my leg I limped for over a year till I got caught running like a hare🐇 around the corner.now I'm like a tortoise 🐢 getting around, my back has given me grief all my life and it didn't help being a carer but I'm glad I was till I had to stop.
I'm glad you are now getting treated properly at last and you have himself to bring you hot chocolate and jackdans! 🍷🍺
Just you look after yourself now you hear, you are a Blessing in disguise you know! 😘🙌 huff xxx
Not if I'm really careful , don't bend and don't lift sacks of coal and big plant pots😉 sciatica gets kicked into touch with ibrufen😀good at the moment thanks Vashti 🙆 xxx
Thank you Vashti,I have a lovely dr but he is football mad and seems a bit absent minded.I had TB When I was 15 and spent 18 months in a TB sanatorium on the Isle of Wight,apart from that I have had no chest problems.About 18 months ago the breathlessness started and the wheezing was very bad ,so off I went to see my footy mad dr.He listened to my chest said I had asthma and to see the pulomary nurse,he also gave me 2 puffers and a letter for an xray.Since then I have had 3 chest infections and the antibiotics .I havn`t seen my dr in a while but saw him just over a week ago after the obligatory chat about his football team he gave me another letter for an xray which I had snd after a week I saw him again yesterday but my xrays were not back ,so I asked him if I could have a blood test,after another earful of footy I was told the nurse would do it.I am concerned as it doesnt get any better even most of the times my puffers dont work.Anyway I shall keep ploding on, but reading your letter Vashti has made me wonder if it is copd but no good worrying.I will see what the results of my xray and blood tests are.
.Good Health to all ,thanks Katie I am still struggling with getting my photo up. mags xxx
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