The last few weeks
The last few weeks have been hectic. Asthma wise they’ve been generally ok- I’ve woken up a couple of times needing my inhaler and been a bit tight but they’ve definitely been OK, which is nice. I’ve had my ‘flu jab which was all good, but I’ve also had two HPV jabs which I’ve really struggled with. I don’t get ill at jabs and I’m not bothered by injections at all- normally anyway. But both times after the HPV i’ve been ill for three-ish days, first time just headachey nausea and very painful arm but this time that plus a temperature. I’ve missed three days of school because of the HPV so far, and I’ve still got one to go which I’m a bit fed up about and nervous about being ill from it again. Aside from that, I’ve made an appointment for my H1N1 jab in a couple of weeks- same day as my asthma check up.
As I mentioned in my last post, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve finally got around to uploading photos so thought I’d put some up 
I was working on the day, so my family got me up early to give me my presents:
They got me a car! Which I promptly drove to work and have fallen in love with. It means I can get to SJA easily and to and from school on my half days really easily rather than getting home at 5 even though I finished at 11.10am.
I’m known for being a bit of a microbiology geek among my Asthma UK friends- I’m applying to study it at Uni next year and havebeen on a summer school on it before so they sent me:
…MRSA and Swine Flu giant microbes (I already had salmonella and the common cold) and they sent me a ‘Law of Straightness’ pencilcase too which was really really great!
I hate social situations and parties really aren’t things I enjoy, so I byepassed the whole “18th birthday houseparty” thing and went out for a meal, for what I thought would be a low key event:
until a giant dog turned up and made me dance in front of the entire resturant:
Not the most flattering photo in the world- I was telling my friends I hated them as it was taken.
It’s also suddenly turned to Autumn here so mum swept all the leaves up in the garden:
It was bonfire night here yesterday, so there are lots of fireworks going off everywhere and our annual village bonfire was last night which mum and I popped down to have a look at and it was lovely (sadly I forgot my camera). There are lots of firework displays tomorrow but I’m working so will only see them driving home from work.
Lots of jumping and hyperness
The asthma hasn’t been behaving itself at the moment and although it’s entirely self inflicted, it’s annoying me. It was my 18th birthday the other day, and I was working but everyone was so incredibly lovely. They put up balloons in the office and a banner and got me a card and some presents which was so so lovely of them. Anyway- I went to London the night before my birthday and again 2 days after and London is never good for my lungs, combined with the jumping up and down squealingness on the actual day (I got a car!!!) I seem to have irritated the lungs and they’re making themselves heard now. I woke up the other night/ morning/ still dark horrible time of day needing my Symbicort rather badly and the peakflow is sticking in the 40%s which is a bit gross. I have a doctors appointment at some point soon (really need to check that) so I’ll bug her then on what to do. I’m going out to celebrate my birthday with friends tonight so I’ll no doubt feel it tomorrow.
And on a side note (and cue more jumping up and down hyperly):
UCAS just told me I just got my first Uni offer!!! Nottingham University gave me a conditional offer to study Microbiology! They want BBB and I’m predicted AAA so it’s all good! eeee! 
That cotton wool feeling
I saw the Doctor again a week ago. The best bit? I’ve managed to avoid a referral to the hospital for asthma, which is good! The worst bit? I’m not going to be dropping my symbicort dosage back down for a while and I’ve got to go back in a couple of weeks, but to my old Doctor.
The lungs have been relatively good for a while. Only bad on waking up with that fuggy-I’ve-been-breathing-cotton-wool feeling. I put them to the test today- walking for the bus- and they didn’t hold up very well. I guess I’m less well lungwise than I thought I was as walking fast wouldn’t normally be a trigger.
Bad lung day
You know those days when you wake and think ‘Hmm, good lung day’? And then those days where your lungs trick you later on, after you’ve decided to run up the stairs at work and zap in the aerosol aisle and then go and push the heaviest bit of machinery ever around?
Today was one of those days.
I woke up feeling good (actually, I’ve felt good pretty much since I upped my symbicort dosage) and forgot to take my meds this morning (Bad Becca). Went to work, feeling fine. Climbed up the stairs to the office and ufffff. Ok, slightly uncomfortable but will probably be fine. So I got sent down to the shop floor to train up on Picking. Now Picking is difficult! Not in the ‘I don’t know what to doooo’ sense- but in the ‘the ‘trolly’ is the same height as me, really wide and so so heavy’ sense.
My arms didn’t like Picking. Neither did my lungs. Not one bit. I spent the rest of the day using my inhaler pretty much every time I had a minute on the stairs (I refuse to take it on the shop floor seeing as it’s not the typical asthma inhaler and I don’t want questions, and I’m not sure my managers know about my asthma so I can’t take it in the Office).
I’ll start working on Picking more often in the next couple of months in the pre-Christmas rush (yep- it’s September and the Christmas rush has already started behind scenes in Supermarkets!). I think this might be a problem.
On a different note- I got my referral through from the Allergy Clinic. It’s not until November but have had to warn people in advance. I’m expected to come off my antihistamines a week before the appointment for Skin-prick and possible RAST testing. Seeing as this is a school week, I’ve had to go in and warn the school nurse that I may well be difficult that week- we’ve agreed that an email will be sent to all my teachers to alert them to the situation, and I’ll carry a red card that I can just hold up if I need to leave class. Thinking about it, I will have to inform work too. Great.
I’m trying not to get my hopes up with the allergy clinic- I got my hopes up when I went to see the Respiratory Consultant a couple of years ago and they did nothing at all. But fingers crossed…
Invisible Illness Week
30 Things About My Invisible Illness that you May Not Know
1. The illness I live with is: Asthma and severe allergic rhinitus
2. I was diagnosed with it: A long time ago, I can’t really remember
3. But I had symptoms since: before I was diagnosed, but I’m not sure when
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: the changing severity of my asthma. I can’t remember not having asthma, but I can remember being a brown and blue asthmatic
5. Most people assume: that asthma is all about wheezing
6. The hardest part about mornings are: getting out of bed without breaking my foot stepping on my peak flow meter.
7. My favorite medical TV show is: casualty
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: my inhaler
9. The hardest part about nights are: getting symptoms during the night, but not waking up so I just dream I’m having an asthma attack and wake up in the morning feeling crappy.
10. Each day I take 2-3 pills, symbicort, nasal spray, eye drops and lotions
11. Regarding alternative treatments I: am sceptical
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: invisible
13. Regarding working and career: it varies. I know that microbiology will not be a problem but it’s the getting there that’s the difficulty (chemistry practicals pose a problem).
14. People would be surprised to know: that everytime the medical professionals act surprised that I’m not wheezing or dismiss me as just having a bad cold (because of the lack of wheeze) I worry that my asthma is all in my head and I’m wasting everyone’s time.
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: that I am not going to grow out of asthma like I thought when I was little.
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: run 10k, which I have done a couple of times at the gym.
17. The commercials about my illness: don’t really exist.
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: nothing. I can’t remember life without asthma.
19. It was really hard to have to give up: nothing- again i can’t remember before I was diagnosed
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: talking to AUK/ KA/ asthma bloggers
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: probably wonder if there was something wrong with me! No, I’d go into a perfume shop, then I’d go and do as many organic chemistry practicals as possible and then I’d enter a marathon.
22. My illness has taught me: that people will always judge, but just because they do doesn’t mean I have to give up.
23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: “Stop coughing”. They wouldn’t ask me to stop wheezing and I can as much stop coughing when having an attack as I can dig to china with a fork.
24. But I love it when people: treat me like they’d treat anyone else.
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: To carry on with their life and still strive to achieve everything they wanted to do before they were diagnosed
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: how judgemental and uncaring some people can be. When I was at a friend’s house and still feeling crappy having been in A+E the day before and stuff, someone turned round to me and asked me why I hadn’t just left the room when it got smokey in Chemistry. On the other hand I’ve also been surprised by how caring people have been.
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: There have been lots of kind things people have done. My school nurse has to be one of them though- when I was captured from school she stayed with me and sat outside resus (she wasn’t allowed in)- even after my mum had arrived- for quite a while until I was getting better then coming and checking on me before going back to the school.
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: people forget that asthma is an illness and whilst they can spray perfume and not notice it, I and other asthmatics will. People forget that they can do anything anytime, but sometimes others might have to pace themselves and do one thing at the expense of another.
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: happy.
Find out more about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and the 5-day free virtual conference with 20 speakers Sept 14-18, 2009 at www.invisibleillness.com
Referral
I saw the doctor the other day as a follow up to spirometry. My mum came with me (in her nurses uniform as she was going straight to work after) which I think was quite good as she’s quite happy to tell the doctor what she thinks needs to happen.
My spiromentry was ok in the end, although it had shown restriction looking closer at the graph printout it was because I’d been told to stop breathing too early, so got incomplete exhalation. Some of the numbers were a bit low at 75% of predicted but partly that’s due to the incomplete exhalation. So it’s a relief that I don’t have any restriction that we know of, so there’s nothing new we need to investigate.
Looking at my peak flow diaries, my peak flow drops every time I drop my steroid dosage, so I’m being bumped up to 3-4 puffs BD in an attempt to stabilise things a bit, and then review in a month. If things aren’t ok by then then I’ll be referred to the consultants at the hospital, fun fun fun.
I’ve also been referred to the allergy consultants at the hospital, as I’m on the top level of medications allergy wise that my GP can think of. It’ll probably mean allergy testing and then follow on from there. I wasn’t expecting this to be honest, I’m so used to my allergy symptoms that I barely notice them most of the time unless I get a mega flair up that it hadn’t occured to me that referral was an option. Part of me is pleased that something might get done, but part of me is mega annoyed because if I end up being referred to the chest clinic too it’s going to mean a lot of ferrying to and from the hospital and possibly missing work/ school for appts.
We also got told that a headache I’d had the other day is a migrane and looking back I’ve had a couple which I’d put down to viral infections. Great.
On a side note, school have introduced a No Aerosol policy Signs have gone up in the toilets to ask people not to use spray perfumes or hairspray and stuff ‘because there are a few asthmatics who’ve had attacks bad enough to need them to go to hospital from school.’ It’s really good- I’m not too triggered by perfume anymore, unless it’s really strong or cloying but it definitely goes to my lungs and if I’m having a bad lung day it can set me off quite well, so it’ll be nice to avoid aerosol-based splatts
Honest Scrap
I’ve been given the “Honest Scrap Award” from Kerri
The award entails I must write ten honest things about myself. Here goes:
1) I am not a tidy person, but I am a straightness freak- pens, cutlery and anything that can be straight, must be straight.
2) I am applying to Uni at the moment- I’m applying to Imperial College, Leicester, Bristol, Warwick and Nottingham to study Microbiology
3) I’m actually terrified of going to Uni ^
4) I am a tea fanatic- I feel lost without a cup of it next to me.
5) I’m an SJAer
6) I have a part time job at a very nice supermarket- I work in the office and consequently have learnt the art of ‘the posh telephone and tannoy voice.’
7) Because of the above- I cannot walk into a supermarket without itching to ‘face up’ a messy aisle.
8) I’m terrified of people touching my neck, heights, the sea, crowds and scales.
9) I live with an asthma nurse 
10) I prefer winter to summer
I must also pass the award along to seven people. (I don’t know if I know 7 people so will repeat people already nominated )
- C of Perfectly Tarnished
- Lost-soul of Lost with no cause
-Emzie of Not all right half left
-Simi of Things I thought I should blog.
- Rachy of Anything but ordinary
- Cathy of Marathon Wheeze
-The people of Catching our Breath
First aid and colds
Over the weekend I did an Advanced First Aid course, with the first aid charity I volunteer with. I loved it, really enjoyed it and I learnt a lot. We learnt all sorts, such as AED, oxygen administration (we were told to administer it to ourselves so we’d know what it feels like to breath in 100% O2 and how it smells, I declined- I already know!), hypoglycaemia, anapen and epipen administration and lots of other stuff which I’ll end up talking about too much if I go into detail. Anyway- I passed the assessments (which were a tad scary!) and can now go on duty as an AFA! yay!
Apart from a pass, I also took away a cold from the weekend. A really nasty cold. I coughed my way through school on monday, and then went to work where I lost my voice (not good seeing as I work both in the office so telephones and tannoys and on the shop floor, so customers) and could not stop coughing. I worked almost until the end of my shift though but have spent the last two days in bed coughing. Not nice.
The next step
I had my appointment for spirometry the other day. It didn’t go quite as well as I hoped and it showed a little bit of restriction and the nurse wasn’t happy with my asthma control anyway so it’s back to the doctors again. I think the restriction was probably due to incomplete exhilation as if I was in bronchospasm at that moment or had chronic underlying inflammation it should have shown obstruction, but hey ho. I’m taking my mum with me this time, so she can play the asthma nurse card and do the talking for me as I find this doctor slightly intimidating. I’m hoping it’ll be something simple like ‘up the dosage of symbicort’ or add in another medication. I don’t want to be referred back to the hospital. Continue reading this entry »
Swine flu and holiday
On holiday, my sister got swine flu. As I was sharing a room with her and had spent 2 days in a caar driving across france with her I was a tad worried about getting it, especially as I’d spent the previous week on pred. I had an emergency course of pred with me just in case, but thankfully I avoided catching it and didn’t need the pred. Fingers crossed I’ve avoided swine flu every time I’ve been exposed to it (a fair few times!).
It’s been a busy week since I got back from holiday- hence the lack of update. I’ve had work, an advanced driving course, relatives round and AS results day. My results turned out ok, I got an A in Biology, A in English lang/lit, B in chemistry and B in maths. I’m a bit disappointed in chemistry as I missed an A by 1 mark so I shall be resitting a module in January.
