So I've been doing a terrible job with keeping up to date on my blogging so I thought I'd give people an update.
I've been in and out of the hospital for various reasons, mostly asthma attacks, but I did also spend a week on the Gynecology ward of the hospital due to having severe stomach pains which unfortunately they never found a cause for but fortunately they never came back. I've also had a few allergic reactions, one of which landed my in high dependency of the hospital.
To explain more. I was admitted to Gynecology for a week due to the mysterious stomach pains and they were trying to get my pain under control so were trying different medications. I was originally on oral morphine but because of how addictive it can be they decided to wean me off it which I was very happy about because the side effects of feeling tired and all woozy. They wanted to try me on a drug called 'amitriptyline' which is used for a lot of things including pain relief. Due to my history with really bad allergic reactions they wanted to monitor me overnight before discharging me as I'd never taken the drug before. The drug is taken at night as it's also used as a sleeping tablet. They gave it to me at about 10pm and I was absolutely fine, sitting watching an episode of Season One ER. By about 10:20pm I began to feel like an allergic reaction was coming on. I felt itchy, more breathless than usual, coughing more than usual, my chest felt tight, the inside of my mouth felt really itchy and my lips felt tingly. I walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My skin was covered in red blotches, my lips, cheeks and eyes were puffy and swelling and I began to have difficulty breathing with an audible wheeze. I walked back to my bed and pressed the call button to get the nurse. A CSW came and I explained I was having an allergic reaction. She got the nurse who then got a doctor (strangely enough the same doctor who had admitted me). The doctor told me to take my epi-pen and she listened to my chest. She told the nurse to put out a 2222 call (it's an emergency call). They then got the crash cart and doctors and other nurses began to flood the room. They called anesthesiology and 3 of them appeared, they then called ICU. Altogether there were 10 doctors, 5 nurses, 4 ICU staff and 3 anesthesiologists. They gave me more adrenaline (IM into my arm this time) and more Salbuttomal nebulisers. They then got the portable monitor, oxygen and wheeled me downstairs a floor to the anesthetic room as they said they feared they were going to have to ventilate me. Luckily after about an hour I began to come around and respond to all the medication. I began to be able to breathe more freely and felt less anxious. Where any condition that affects your breathing is concerned the moment they call for ICU and mention ventilation the panic begins to set in and you often fear that you may never wake up again (or at least that's how it's for me). ICU said my numbers were looking better so I didn't need to be admitted to them but I did need further monitoring so was admitted to HDU (High dependency) overnight to be kept monitored. After a night I was discharged back to the ward where after another night I was discharged from the hospital. So now I have a further allergy to add to my ever-growing list, it's really difficult for me where they're concerned but I guess it's something I've just had to grow accustomed to.
On a different note my asthma didn't bother me for a total of 7 weeks (this is some what of a record for me as my asthma used to cause me to be hospitalised at least 2 times a month for days to a week at a time). During my second last admission due to asthma problems (around about 3 weeks ago now) something a lot more drastic and a lot scarier (in my opinion) happened to me. I was admitted for a night to the assessment unit and discharged, I had to then go back in because my breathing had worsened and I couldn't speak in complete sentences. The hospital was struggling for beds but my mum and the second A&E doctor felt I shouldn't have been discharged in the first place. After a second night in the assessment unit I was admitted to Ward 204, the respiratory ward, my usual place of residence within the hospital. I was doing okay, I was actually starting to get a lot better. After 2 nights there I was getting ready to be discharged the next day, everything was looking up. Then everything went down hill (I guess that's how it works where health conditions are concerned really). I ate dinner and was sitting watching an episode of House MD on my laptop waiting on my mum coming in. I began to feel a bit strange, dizzy, almost like I wasn't completely with it. My mum came in and I asked her to get a sick bowl for me as I was beginning to feel sick and also if the nurse could get me an anti-sickness tablet. She got me a sick bowl and I said I felt dizzy. She suggested going to the toilet in case I was sick. I went and was sick a little then got up to walk back. The world was spinning round and I felt very much like I was going to pass out any second. I walked back, staggering like I was drunk, to my bed and lay down. I was screaming at my mum and crying saying I was going to pass out and I felt dizzy. The next thing I remember is waking up and a nurse saying to be careful as I had a needle in my foot. I then woke back up again and I personally thought I'd fallen asleep and everyone had gone. My mum walked back in and sat down next to me. She said that I'd fallen unconcious and had begun to have a seizure of some sort. She'd got the nurse and when they arrived they'd pulled the emergency button above the bed. They had the crash cart and about 20 different doctors arriving. I can't remember any of it and it really scared me. That night I could barely think straight, I had a banging sore head and I was too dizzy to walk to the toilet so they had to get me a comode whenever I needed (bedside toilet). They had various doctors come see me and even thought about sending me to High dependency or intensive care to be monitored as they weren't sure what caused it. I was referred to the first seizure clinic on discharge from the hospital and I'm awaiting an EEG (brain scan).
I was doing really well until Saturday night. I went to an 18th birthday party for my friends who are twin girls. The night was going great. We were there from 7pm and everything was okay. By 10pm I said to my friends I wanted to stand outside for some fresh air. By 11pm I was in the back of an ambulance. I remember waking up on the ground with someone holding me on my side and police officers asking questions to friend. The paramedics tried to get sense out of me but couldn't get anything much out of me. I was asked many times what drugs I'd taken when the reality is I'd never take drugs and never have taken drugs. The hospital discharged me after 3-4 hours. I was told by the paramedics my friends saw me having what looked very much like a seizure. I now unfortunately fit the diagnosis criteria for epilepsy (it's 2 or more unprovoked, unexplained seizures). The hospital on both occasions could find nothing to explain my seizures, my blood were normal, my temperature normal, nothing wrong with my brain etc. I will be seeing the epilepsy specialist after the New Year to hopefully find out the cause of this as I don't want to have to go through it again. It's really difficult for not only me but others around me. The first time my mum completely broke down, the second time my friends completely broke down. I don't know how many more times I can cause people to break down without it breaking me apart :/
