I’ve been referred to respiratory as urgent to kings lynn hospital but I had a letter back saying there’s no appointments and a 46 week wait, any ideas on what I can do please? My family managed to pay for a cat scan to see if it would help but now I’m a mess and panicky as I don’t understand it and don’t know when I’ll get to see someone about this I’ve attached the letter. I am a mess and it’s affecting my whole family because I am in so much pain and have an awful deep tubular loud noise that comes and goes during the day everyday that makes me worry more on forced expiration
I have asthma that has always been well managed and havent had any reason for these problems to come on
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Lucyloo123
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First advice is to calm down and stop worrying so much. Yes ok you may have a problem but from what I could read on your letter following the cat scan there is also not to much to be to panic about. If nothing else try asking your surgery for a telephone appointment so that your GP can explain the letter to you and hopefully put your mind at rest somewhat. I wish you well
You need to calm down firstly. From your letter which isn't clear enough but what I can see everything is saying normal but has something abdominal which doctor needs to explain I'm sure isn't that worse or they would have called you in or gave it more attention have some faith and calm down if you give up on yourself won't get far my friend we all have bad diseases that we fight on daily basis we need to stay strong hope things get better and you hear good news soon
Hi. Its so important to know that asthma can take a downturn, from being well controlled to being uncontrolled wreaking havoc on your lung health. I feel for you, especially as it's such a difficult time at the moment.
If I were you - and of course I'm not a medic, just a patient Iike every one else here with different levels of different lung diseases & a wealth of experience to draw on - my 1st port of call would be an appointment with a good respiratory nurse on face on video call if necessary. It could be as simple as as change of inhaler. Or would your family run to an appointment with a respiratory consultant? Stress is the last thing you need for your asthma.
A lot of us find breathing exercises help with anxiety. I use pursed lip breathing when short of breath and deep diaphragm breathing for calming.
Lucyloo contact PAL ther the people who handle complaints about hospitals, remember we paid for the N H S the specialist and the doctors are in ther jobs because we paid for them ,in my case for over 50 years , and please dont take no for a anwser . good luck and take care Rodders
Hi Lucyloo123 and welcome to the site. Firstly I must agree that you must calm down and stop the panic, that will solve nothing and just give you anxiety.
I am not a doctor and cant advise you on your condition, but will say your letter does say mild atelectasis and everything else is clear.
Everybody at the moment is on hold due to this lockdown and I am afraid we do have to be patient, but would speak with your gp to help you understand this condition or contact the blf helpline x
It is very difficult to see a respiratory physician at the moment as you can imagine why. I’m not sure how easy or quick it is to see one privately at the moment. Meanwhile ask for a telephone appointment with your GP and ask for the GP to explain clearly the CT results. You could also start doing some breathing exercise breath in deeply through the nose into your tummy count as far as you can go then hold for 5 seconds then blow out with pursed lips ( as if your blowing a candle out) again count to double the amount of your breathing in. This may help to loosen anything off your chest. Flutter devices are also helpful . I got one from Amazon .
The first thing to say is that I’m not remotely medically qualified. That being said, my understanding of this letter is that it’s basically saying your lungs look fine, with the exception of some minor volume reduction at the bottom of both lungs, left lung worse than right. Atelectasis is the medical word for collapse, however in practice it can mean anything from minor reduction due to mucus plugging a small area, to the entire lung being collapsed and being a medical emergency. Milder cases are very frequently seen after someone has had a general anaesthetic, even in otherwise healthy people. Other ‘benign’ common causes include chest infections and mucus plugging, and the ct report indicates that they’ve looked for the sinister causes that could be responsible or signs that the atelectasis is indicative of something serious and not found anything.
In cases of very mild atelectasis, often a watch and wait approach is taken as it will often resolve itself. In those where it’s infection driven, treating the underlying infection and using chest physio to clear any mucus that may be causing the collapse is often enough, and asthma on its own is also well known to be a cause of mucus plugs that can lead to atelectasis. Based on that, I’d suggest phoning your gp and discussing the results with them and see what they suggest. Unless you’re productive and coughing stuff up, I think it’s unlikely that they’ll want to go down the antibiotic route, but the fact that you’re symptomatic and struggling a bit means that it warrants looking at what the options are to help sort you out. Bog standard ventolin inhalers can be useful, so you might be advised to increase the use of that in the short term if you have one, along with deep breathing/coughing exercises to try and shift any plugs that might be responsible.
As a final aside, when a GP sends an urgent referral, it’s still triaged at the receiving department to determine if it is considered urgent by the specialty - GPs are a jack of all trades, so don’t always get urgency right in either direction. However tricky things may be right now, I don’t believe that any hospital in the U.K. would tell you 46 weeks if they felt you were clinically urgent, so I suspect they looked at the referral and - rightly or wrongly - decided you can wait.
Hope that helps a bit and has reduced some of your panic.
Hi Hun, You have been Missed, Yesterday, someone asked after you & Your little one . Nice to see you back. Hope your Both Well as can be. Stay Safe. XXX C.
• in reply to
How lovely to have you back to do all that typing and explaining! We missed you. Just glad that you are still yomping the yellow brick road.😊
Hi there. I completely understand how you feel. My suggestion is that you get a GP appointment and be strong about what you say. Request an urgent referral to Peterborough City Hospital Respiratory Dept. I know from experience just what Kings Lynn Respiratory Dept are like (even without a Pandemic). Lucyloo123, they are about as rubbish as you can get and I speak from experience. Don't go there!! They utterly don't care and you will not get the treatment or respect you deserve. I know that sounds awful and from experience it was. I have Bronchiectasis. I got so bad before I knew what it was that I spent 12 hours in A &E at Kings Lynn as my heart was going mental, really fast and I couldn't breathe properly. They did a HRCT with dye and it was sent to Australia for interpretation as by then Kings Lynn staff had left for the day. I didn't know my diagnosis then but was given beta blocker to slow my heart rate and had to attend the emergency unit next day. They told me what it was and said I would need a respiratory Consultant, Resp. physiotherapist and Resp. nurse and they would arrange for that with the Resp. dept. Gave me a steroid and reliever inhaler. Up to this point everyone was really good. That was August 2016. My urgent in hospital refer meant I got at appointment in December. Saw a locum Dr. Got blood test forms and told my Bronch was bilateral just about moderate but no further info. Next time I saw him was 14 months later and he discharged me back to GP. Never knew who consultant was, never given blood results, never had my CT scan explained, none of it and I have had no follow up at all since. So it does not surprise me with the letter you have received. Please don't worry though I know that is difficult. Take care. x
First thing I would say is that your anxiety is very understandable. Secondly I believe CharlieG gives a good explanation of the letter and lastly there is a good chance that it my right it's self with time and there is no need for urgent medical intervention. Obviously you need to speak with your GP about the letter and if your symptoms become worse again speak with your GP to arrange urgent follow up.
The only thing apparently 'wrong' on the scan is minor atelectasis. Whilst not life threatening, or even serious, I know from personal experience that it can be uncomfortable and anxiety inducing... but you'll need to post more history info if we are to offer meaningful advice, beyond 'try not to worry'.
Thank you for all of your replies, I’ve been very depressed with the noise that comes with forced expiration which is why I paid for the ct scan , I have been looking at pictures of when things were good (without the worrying noise from my lungs) And I noticed that shortly after getting a new big dog from my friend who was unable to keep him, the noise started a month or so after having him ..
could it be a pet allergy?
I have had my little dogs for years
This one I’ve now had nearly 6 months?
Could this just be a coincidence? I haven’t noticed any other life changes other than him
Allergy itself wouldn’t cause atelectasis, but that doesn’t mean that allergy isn’t potentially involved; I can’t comment on how likely it is, but an allergic response could have exacerbated your asthma, which in turn has led to mucus plugging and the minor atelectasis on your scan. All that said, though, I would have expected you to notice some change in your day to day asthma symptoms more quickly than a month for allergy to have played a part. If you had nothing for a month and then suddenly these symptoms out of nowhere, I’d personally suggest that makes coincidence much more likely. Have you been using a reliever inhaler regularly/with increased frequency? Do you feel more tight? You could try taking an antihistamine for a few days, but short of specific allergy testing, the only other way to prove the dog has any role would be to separate from it completely until you were fully recovered, then reintroduce him and see if the same thing happened.
Hi , don't worry I have atelactisis at both lung bases and have had it for 20 years. It is a very common finding and may not cause any problems. It is a little bit of lung collapse which is quite a common finding. Stop stressing even the conclusion on the report said it is minor. Bi basilar just means both lung bases. Your lungs are good according to that report.
And the crackling noise which I also suffer with ( terrible in bed in the mornings) and quite audible at the mouth will be from your chronic asthma symptoms . It's inflammation and mucus in your airways. I hate it, but mine is from copd which shares symptoms with asthma but the good news is asthma is reversible copd isn't. Hope that helps.
Ring the King's lynn lung health department explain Yr anxiety affecting Yr breathing and ask if u can arrange a telephone consultation it may take a week or months but believe me its amazing how soon It does come round and have a written list of Yr questions everytime u wonder somthing add it.Good luck and keep trying week in week out staffing in hospital change day by day in these covid times if they carnt help ring your G. P for answers better than no-ones opinion
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