Thursday 30 August 2007

Lung Capacity

I've been fighting a cough for about 1 month now. I just thought it was originally related to the stress of work and needing a holiday. Whilst on holiday rather than get better, I've gotten worse and also infected my husband. Two days ago Marc got fed up with coughing his lungs up all day long for the last 2 weeks and went to the walk in centre at Upton Hospital. They became concerned when is oxygen capacity was nearly less than half what is should be and promptly prescribed steroid pills, antibiotics, and an inhaler.

He then described to them my symptoms and they said I needed to be cared for immediately. They called the other hospital (Heatherwood) and made an out of hours appt for 7:15 that evening. I went straight from work (yes, I know it sounds odd that I was working late but I did have 283 unread emails upon my return to work - blah blah blah).

We were seen immediately. No waiting - never had that happen with the NHS before (except when I broke my leg & had a miscarriage). The doctor diagnosed me exactly the same as Marc and prescribed exactly the same medication. The steroids give me the shakes and keep me awake at night. The antibiotics are giving me indigestion. I'm not convinced I'm using the inhaler properly but I think I'm getting better at it.

We are now on the mend but for some reason I feel worse today that I have for weeks. I suppose the combination of work and illness is more draining than work and holiday. I've slept the afternoon away and feel marginally better than I did at midday.

Bear with me whilst I look after my health and veg out for a while!

3 comments:

Sue said...

Get well quick.
Sue

Shirley said...

I hope you both get better soon. Sounds very serious. A virus?

LaDawn said...

They haven't done blood tests so not sure if it is a virus and since they've given us antibiotics that would point to a bacterial infection. I know that after 3 days of steroids & antibiotics I'm not feeling any better so will probably be going back to the dr.