Refered on

After struggling yet again to get asthma under control my local hospital has now decided to send me to the North West Lung centre. I'm worried asI don't know what this place is or what they are going to do. I'm even more scared they will change my medication as each time I see a different doctor this seems to happen.

Finding things particularly hard at the moment as I'm trying to get a job but my sickness record goes against me. Why can't employers see all people like me need is a little bit of understanding and time to attend medical check ups. Being told I need to be less stressed if I want to getmy control back but surely this can't be the only reason why my control is bad.

Apologies for the essay but would welcome any help/advice from anyone who has experienced being refered on and having trouble getting employment.

Hope everyone else is having a better time of it.

Take care

Rabbit

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Hi Rabbit

Don't worry about the North West Lung centre - am assuming you will be referred to Rob Niven's severe asthma clinic. I'm under Rob's care, as are a number of people here. NWLC is tertiary centre - so is used to dealing with those who local hospitals get to the limits of what they can do and will take great care of you.

They won't change your meds initially don't worry. You will have an initial appointment where they start from the beginning - literally - asking about childhood, vaccinations, childhood illnesses etc etc, and also redo all usual tests including bone density scan. Then they will try to narrow down what your triggers are / whether you have other problems as well as asthma and take it from there. Rob doesn't like changing meds just for the sake of it, but only does it if he feels it will make a difference or to see if it will - so you will most likely stay on what you are at least til he's done all the tests and stuff.

They also do lots of research so may ask you to get involved with that too, but not immediately, and are a teaching hospital so you may see some nice students around - I forced one such student to do an exercise test as she'd asked me to do it then just watched and I said she should do it too so she knew what it felt like! Managed to get Rob to do it too so was very pleased with myself!

Rob's main aim is to get your asthma controlled on the minimum amount of medication possible, and hopefully you will get to that stage sooner rather than later.

Good luck, hope you get an appointment soon, and don't worry - they'll take great care of you!

Good luck

x

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Thank you

Just a quick one to say thank you to everyone who gave me advice. Had appointment at NWLC and was really surprised. Far from finding they didn't know what to do with me they have come up with some new avenues of treatment to explore. Dr Niven was lovely and actually listened to what I had to say. Go back for tests in New Year and see what happens.

Many thanks and Happy Christmas to all

Take care

Rabbit