Who am I?

Hi all!

My name is Jess and I'm a 23 year old medical student living with severe allergic asthma. I also currently have the joy of a condition called "hypogammaglobulinaemia" (essentially, my immune system doesn't work properly!) which is currently under investigation as it could just be me or it could be one of the wonderful side effects of all the steroids I take for my asthma (fingers crossed for the latter!).

I had asthma diagnosed in childhood but it was always fairly mild and never gave me any particular issues that I can remember past the odd course of steroids if I had a particularly nasty virus. Skip forward to my third year of university (2015/16) and its safe to say things went pretty downhill!

Since then I've racked up an impressive number of admissions (I've lost count of the exact number, but I'm pretty sure I hit 23 before my 23rd birthday!) and a wonderful cocktail of tablets and inhalers to take everyday - I'm pretty sure if you could pick me up and shake me I would rattle!

This blog will hopefully give me a place to share my experiences, both as a patient and training in the NHS, hopefully pass on useful info to others and most importantly, rant!

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