Sunday 4 November 2012

1 year ago..

Good news is the chest pains I had last Friday went.. spent the weekend still feeling quite shattered & coughy but not as bad as Friday so that's good :)
Which meant I got to enjoy my half term!!

This time a year ago my mum had rushed me to hospital as I was struggling to breathe. They put me on oxygen, put a terabutalin pump into my tummy to help open my airways more, rushed through tonnes of fluids and IVs, sent emergency bloods off meanwhile my mum trying to stay calm through the whole thing! In the end I had the doctor, 3 nurses and 2 care assistants all in tiny treatment room trying to stablise me. Once I'd stopped giving everyone heart failure a room became free. Me being me said "oh its fine i'll walk the 10 steps to the room" so jumped out the wheelchair, walked 1 step and nearly collapsed! So they ended up wheeling me in! I stayed on oxygen for about a week and a half, the terabutalin pump came out after about a week but I was on 3 times a day IVs for a couple of months. My amazing mum stayed with me the whole time, all day and all night for the two weeks (to be honest, I didn't exactly give her a choice! hehe) so Dad bought a blowup bed so she could at least be comfy. I slept an awful lot as it was so much energy trying to breathe I was exhausted. Quite a lot of things I don't remember as I think I was just so poorly my body just wanted to get better rather than create 'memories' as such! My weight was so low they tried a million supplements with me..each one the dietician would go 'oh it tastes lovely' but she'd never had them so didn't quite understand that they tasted like shite! Every one of them made me sick so the doctor said there's not point in having them! 
I'm not sure about percentages but my lung function was about 0.6 litres.. the usual person is 4litres or more I think... So it really was BAD! I think quite a few people didn't realise how poorly I actually was as I wasn't on facebook much as I didn't have the energy but when the doctor tells you that your body was beginning to shut itself down, you know that's not a good thing!!!

In the end after two weeks in hospital they let me go home, but I had to have over 6 weeks off work and the first two weeks after coming out of hospital I was in a wheelchair when going round shops (although me being a pain kept trying to walk for a bit as I was determined but would end up giving in to having to sit in the wheelchair as my lungs weren't quite ready!)




Whereas this year, I've managed to visit my amazing friend Luci at uni, and go out for halloween.

























I had a gorgeous afternoon tea with my mum on the 1st November which was the day I went in, we celebrated being healthier!



Only downside has been that I've been having horrible dreams where I'm in hospital and can't breath so wake up gasping, luckily now that 1st November has actually gone the dreams seemed to have stopped!


Little lungs aren't too bad at the moment, bit congested but holding up alright compared to last week! 

1 comment:

  1. Wow Grace, I had no idea what you had been through.. I knew you were poorly but I hadnt been filled in on all the details. Im glad your health is on the mend, your so brave! X

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