Comments on: The Recovery http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/ Severe Asthmatic, Respiratory Therapist,Marathon Walker, Health Advocate, Lab Rat Mon, 14 May 2012 21:57:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Stephen http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1659 Stephen Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:20:51 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1659 THanks for the comments. Sorry you're having such a rough recovery. Don't you just love this disease.! Are you a severe asthmatic? You should contact Sally Wenzel at the University of Pittsburgh . She's looking for severe asthmatics for research. They're doing some fascinating stuff there. She's an awesome doctor who can totally related to the hell we go through. Breath easy! THanks for the comments. Sorry you’re having such a rough recovery. Don’t you just love this disease.! Are you a severe asthmatic? You should contact Sally Wenzel at the University of Pittsburgh . She’s looking for severe asthmatics for research. They’re doing some fascinating stuff there. She’s an awesome doctor who can totally related to the hell we go through.

Breath easy!

]]> By: LabPixie http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1652 LabPixie Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:27:23 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1652 Hi. I found your post through some random googling. Although I've had asthma all my life, I haven't had a severe attack since I was a child. I had one recently that I needed to go to the ER for treatment. It was scary stuff. However, what shocked me was my slow recovery time. I was absolutely zapped of all energy for days. Moving on the couch exhausted me. Stairs and steps still leave my heart thumping and me breathless. My peak flow is still down. Despite the plethora of information available for dealing with an asthma attack, or controlling asmtha, there is very little about the aftereffects of such an attack. I was worried that I should have been bounching back alot quicker, and eventually phoned my doctor. I appreciate your post, and knowing that this is a pain for other people too :) Hi. I found your post through some random googling. Although I've had asthma all my life, I haven't had a severe attack since I was a child. I had one recently that I needed to go to the ER for treatment. It was scary stuff. However, what shocked me was my slow recovery time. I was absolutely zapped of all energy for days. Moving on the couch exhausted me. Stairs and steps still leave my heart thumping and me breathless. My peak flow is still down. Despite the plethora of information available for dealing with an asthma attack, or controlling asmtha, there is very little about the aftereffects of such an attack. I was worried that I should have been bounching back alot quicker, and eventually phoned my doctor.
I appreciate your post, and knowing that this is a pain for other people too :)

]]> By: Olive http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1182 Olive Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:22:56 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1182 hi stephen. Im glad your out of hospital and on the road to recovery. reading you post I can relate to it so much and you are so right. there is not much after care once you ahve had the attack and got stable. as you say drs jsut look at your numbers but dont actually know how you are doing. its not only physically draining but also psychologically as well. I am lucky that I ahve a great psychlogist who works with me now for after attack and works with me to make sure i pace myself and not go back to things too quickly. i find that the worse the attack the worse the recovery and the more frsutrating it is. i think the more attacks i ahve the longer it takes to recover jsut with more damage that is being done. take care and hope your recovery goes smoothly olive x hi stephen. Im glad your out of hospital and on the road to recovery. reading you post I can relate to it so much and you are so right. there is not much after care once you ahve had the attack and got stable. as you say drs jsut look at your numbers but dont actually know how you are doing. its not only physically draining but also psychologically as well. I am lucky that I ahve a great psychlogist who works with me now for after attack and works with me to make sure i pace myself and not go back to things too quickly. i find that the worse the attack the worse the recovery and the more frsutrating it is. i think the more attacks i ahve the longer it takes to recover jsut with more damage that is being done.
take care and hope your recovery goes smoothly
olive x

]]> By: GayleMyrna http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1181 GayleMyrna Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:15:15 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1181 Hi: Glad you are on the recovery road. Though I have had numerous ER, Urgent Care, same day doctor visits, etc., etc. due to the multiple exacerbations I've experienced, I've only had two hospital stays (I am adult-onset, with my condition worsened since 03). I am fortunate that my current family practice doctor of last 3 plus years has been very diligent on following up on me with multiple visits during my l-o-n-g recovery periods of time. Yes, you are absolutely right that once the initial acute phase of the attack has been dealt with (in my case, with lots and lots of prednisone, IV steriods, IV antibiotics, nebs, oral antibiotics, etc, etc.) there is a prolonged recovery period. In my case, inbetween exacerbations (and mine usually involve bacterial bronchitis) I still have dypsnea with walking faster than a strolling pace, and irritant hypersensitivity, etc....but at least I can function pretty well. I am currently at my "baseline", so optimistic, but vigilant. Take good care of yourself and keep on keeping on! GayleMyrna Hi: Glad you are on the recovery road. Though I have had numerous ER, Urgent Care, same day doctor visits, etc., etc. due to the multiple exacerbations I've experienced, I've only had two hospital stays (I am adult-onset, with my condition worsened since 03). I am fortunate that my current family practice doctor of last 3 plus years has been very diligent on following up on me with multiple visits during my l-o-n-g recovery periods of time. Yes, you are absolutely right that once the initial acute phase of the attack has been dealt with (in my case, with lots and lots of prednisone, IV steriods, IV antibiotics, nebs, oral antibiotics, etc, etc.) there is a prolonged recovery period. In my case, inbetween exacerbations (and mine usually involve bacterial bronchitis) I still have dypsnea with walking faster than a strolling pace, and irritant hypersensitivity, etc….but at least I can function pretty well. I am currently at my "baseline", so optimistic, but vigilant. Take good care of yourself and keep on keeping on!
GayleMyrna

]]> By: Susannah http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1180 Susannah Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:22:41 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1180 Well written, Steve. By all accounts let those who ought to see this see it-your Team, physios, shrinks, you name it. I always think that we get patched up enough to abort or fix the certain crisis scenario, then are discharged to start the rocky real recovery. From personal experience the length of time spent in a hospital bed prolongs the length of the recovery at home, so coupled with the fact that if you've been pretty darn sick whilst you were in that hospital bed, then you're looking at a pretty uphill recovery patch. It's a whole other 'kettle of fish' , isn't it, and one a lot of the medical bods don't really know about. It tends to be those closest to me who pick up the pieces at home following a difficult admission, plus my local GP. Oh yes, your US style discharge notes are far above what we get given here-there have been plenty of times that J and I have had to try and remember what happened to me during the course of an admission, drugs, IVs tubes you name it-this is something the UK is currently trying to rectify! Gentle healing hugs, Sus xx Well written, Steve. By all accounts let those who ought to see this see it-your Team, physios, shrinks, you name it. I always think that we get patched up enough to abort or fix the certain crisis scenario, then are discharged to start the rocky real recovery. From personal experience the length of time spent in a hospital bed prolongs the length of the recovery at home, so coupled with the fact that if you've been pretty darn sick whilst you were in that hospital bed, then you're looking at a pretty uphill recovery patch.
It's a whole other 'kettle of fish' , isn't it, and one a lot of the medical bods don't really know about. It tends to be those closest to me who pick up the pieces at home following a difficult admission, plus my local GP.

Oh yes, your US style discharge notes are far above what we get given here-there have been plenty of times that J and I have had to try and remember what happened to me during the course of an admission, drugs, IVs tubes you name it-this is something the UK is currently trying to rectify!

Gentle healing hugs,

Sus xx

]]> By: Heather http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1179 Heather Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:34:33 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1179 I think this happens in a lot of situations. I don't know about the United States, but here in Canada the system is so bogged down in every area, it's all workers can do to just keep people alive. Don't get me wrong..I am thankful every day for our "godless communist healthcare" but people aren't making the connection between good follow-up and better long-term outcomes. I also know another part of it is that here, doctors don't get paid unless they physically see you...so phone calls are out of the question. I recently had to drive five hours both ways to have a doctor read my mri and bone scan for 2 minutes. This post also reminded me....what do you think about allotment of resources for swine flu? There has already been talk that there are just not enough ventilators and ecmo for those that will need them.. Do you think that having asthma will be a point against us versus a young healthy-but-sick with h1n1? I think this happens in a lot of situations. I don't know about the United States, but here in Canada the system is so bogged down in every area, it's all workers can do to just keep people alive. Don't get me wrong..I am thankful every day for our "godless communist healthcare" but people aren't making the connection between good follow-up and better long-term outcomes. I also know another part of it is that here, doctors don't get paid unless they physically see you…so phone calls are out of the question. I recently had to drive five hours both ways to have a doctor read my mri and bone scan for 2 minutes.

This post also reminded me….what do you think about allotment of resources for swine flu? There has already been talk that there are just not enough ventilators and ecmo for those that will need them.. Do you think that having asthma will be a point against us versus a young healthy-but-sick with h1n1?

]]> By: Danielle http://breathinstephen.com/the-recovery/comment-page-1/#comment-1177 Danielle Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:11:45 +0000 http://breathinstephen.com/?p=8261#comment-1177 This gets me too, people really don't understand what we go through to get back to "normal" after a severe exacerbation. Once the visible panic stage is over, it's easy for outsiders to forget what we are up against. Luckily I haven't had to climb that mountain in awhile now. I'm really rooting for a smooth recovery from here on in! Danielle This gets me too, people really don't understand what we go through to get back to "normal" after a severe exacerbation. Once the visible panic stage is over, it's easy for outsiders to forget what we are up against. Luckily I haven't had to climb that mountain in awhile now. I'm really rooting for a smooth recovery from here on in!

Danielle

]]>