Some progress at last?

So its been a while since I posted anything on here really, its been a fairly rough year so far and to be honest I'm pretty bored with spending as much time in hospital as out! (Its not quite that bad, but it certainly feels that way...)

I finally had my planned admission at the start of June to try and reduce my steroid dose and just generally find out a bit more about what's going on! I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been so bored!!! At least when I'm unwell with asthma I just want to sleep, but being sat in a side room (thanks immune system...) for 2 weeks when you're feeling well most of the time is something else.

But we found my dose limit (20mg of prednisolone for now, but down from 30-40!) and found if I go much lower than that I very quickly drop into a silent chest and desaturate, needing oxygen - so generally a good thing to avoid for now...

Also we managed to show airway obstruction on a fancy new test called oscillometry that requires no effort on the part of the patient (whereas the traditional spirometry can be affected by tiredness/pain etc) so at least the asthma diagnosis query should FINALLY be put to rest. There is nothing more frustrating as a patient than a doctor you've never met before suddenly deciding to ignore your years of tests, hospital admissions and clinic letters and suggesting that "maybe you're not asthmatic?". (Extra shout out to the consultant that rotated onto the ward at the end of my admission telling me I need to lose weight but with no suggestion on how to do that when I'm in hospital every month!).

I was also started on a new inhaler to try and combat the allergy side of things, which seems to be helping! I'm pretty symptomatic still but at least going outdoors doesn't send me to hospital now... My consultant also started coming up with theories about weird and wonderful allergic disorders he thinks I might also have! Well... my family did always say I was weird!

Off to my appointment with another specialist centre next week, where hopefully I'll get the go ahead to have bronchial thermoplasty (https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/severe-asthma/treating-severe-asthma/bronchial-thermoplasty/) as we now know that I probably won't ever be suitable for any of the other biological therapies that are currently on the market!

So fingers crossed for next week!

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