We had a wonderful week in Wiltshire last week which I will update on later on. But for one reason or another I came down with a cold and suffered for a good portion of the holiday week thereafter. On our return this made our manic house packing all the more arduous as I really just felt like death warmed up. Sean, as ever, was so kind and took over a lot of the organising and sorting of stuff. He is such a good boyfriend and I couldn't ask for anything more. He tucked me up in bed, Kleenex in easy reach, cup of tea in hand and provided me with regular snacks and warm drinks and cuddles for when I was being a whinger or just generally having a meltdown about not being able organise for myself.
I say a 'cold' but as we know its never just a cold with me and inevitably goes to my chest. I suffered with fevers and was coughing up some pretty colourful stuff within a few days. But determined not to get sick during this move, I soldiered on without seeing the doc. I didn't really have much choice truth be told. It didn't feel urgent enough to go to A&E and with it being the weekend there were no GP appointments I could make. I had an appt at chest clinic on the following Tuesday so I thought I'd hold on until then, hoping they could give me some oral antibiotics to fight off the bugs.
When I arrived the doctor wasn't having any of it. As much as I protested and basically had a mini meltdown about the Impracticality of it all.. he wanted me admitted for IVs. I was naive to think that meant I had at least bypassed the stress of the A&E process. I still had to sit there for 4 hours while the bed manager found me a bed. Nevertheless they did get me settled in the end. Sean brought in some essentials for a few nights stay (3 at most I thought) but here I am on Day 9. I feel a zillion times better than when I was admitted. the infection levels are coming down in my blood which is great news. There's just a couple more hurdles to overcome and then I can go home (well.. go to my ymums anyway. I know longer have an apartment do I? Must remember that!). The antibiotics have raged havoc with my warfarin and so my clotting is again in a sub-therapeutic range which makes me very susceptible to yet more blood clots. So for the foreseeable I'll be on the injections again. This sucks but it keeps me safe so I am tolerating it as much as I can. Hurdle no.2 comes in the form of my oxygen dependency. My lungs don't seem to have recovered enough from this last bout to be able to cope without oxygen at all. Even at rest. The doc commented that my bronchiectasis was rather more widespread than he'd originally thought. And so he says that each infection will take its toll (leaving further scarring) and take longer to recover from.
So for future reference all... If you have a cold or infection of the respiratory kind, please don't share it if at all possible ! I'll really need to be more careful than I have been being.
In the meantime the move happened thanks to my Sean, Mum & Dads relentless hard work. I really can't thank them enough. Sean hasn't had a chance to rest since he had to travel straight to Belgium on Sunday to start a weeks training over there. I'm missing him like mad and can't wait to have him back on Friday night. Nothing quite like being in the arms of the one you love - cheesy I know but very true. In the meantime mum has assumed her usual duties as my sole visitor, food provider and clothes launderer. Lord knows what I'd do without my family.
