The first 2 days were very positive, having morning physio and using the hospital gym. Doing about 10-20 minutes on the treadmill and 5-10 minutes on the cross trainer. At this point I felt motivated and had lots of energy.
However as the IV treatment started to kick in I was feeling worse every day. My medication times were 7am, 3pm, and 11pm so I was having late nights and early starts. Not to mention being woken up in the night for SATS readings.
One week into IV antibiotics and by this point I was feeling rather tired. Only being able to achieve 5 minutes on the treadmill at best or just a walk up and down 4 flights of stairs was enough before I felt lightheaded.
The main reason for staying in hospital for longer was to try and shift the mucus in my lungs with some more guidance and help from my physio. Before exercise I would do a hypotonic saline nebuliser to shack up the airways and target sticky areas, therefore hopefully bringing up secretions would be easier. After exercise I would sit on a gym ball and start some AD (Autogenic Drainage). This is a breathing technique that uses controlled breathing and the least amount of coughing to clear secretions from the chest. As my mum would call it 'Yoga for the Lungs'. For me I could hear and tell I was shifting the mucus but not being able to bring any up.
I had a midweek review with my CF team. I had a lung function which had actually dropped from 85% to 83%. My doctor explained that this is a common issue because you targeting the lungs with treatment, you tend to blow a lower percentage. It wasn't what I was hoping but I could tell the treatment was doing something.
I started a course of steroids to try and reduce inflammation and help clear airways, and planned to carry on the hypotonic saline at home. I had a chest x-ray which looked ok and did not show any significant difference from my last one dated January 2015.
My doctors came to the conclusion that a 2 week course of IVs wouldn't be enough, therefore extending the treatment to 11th May to make it a 3 week course.
I was able to finally go home Saturday 25th April with IVs on order for another 2 weeks. There was nothing better than hopping into my own bed that night and knowing I was going to get a full nights sleep.
January X-Ray LEFT
April X-Ray RIGHT
Part 3 - week ending 17th May
More information on Autogenic Drainage - www.srft.nhs.uk/EasysiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=26347&type=full&servicetype=Attachment autogenic drainage
More information on Hypotonic Saline - http://www.rbht.nhs.uk/healthprofessionals/clinical-departments/paediatrics/childrencf/respiratory-care/hypertonic-saline/
Twitter - twitter.com/11nicolee
Instagram - instagram.com/nicskath_
No comments:
Post a Comment