Down But Not Out

Filed under Hospital

I’m now in hospital for about 3 days now.

I have bronchitis (severe coughing) in the aftermath of a flu bout caused by a viral infection (see my last post on The Winners).

The severe coughing did some damage in that it caused my airways to get inflammed, which made me cough some more, which caused it to be more inflammed, which caused me to cough some more, and so on, causing a vicious cycle.

The non-stop coughing throughout the day caused other problems: a massive migraine, heavy dehydration (according to the doc, I lost up to a liter of water a day just from the coughing alone!) which in turn caused pain in my joints, constipation and general lethargy.

This in turn made me sleep up to 18 hours a day (and resulted in my having missed quite a number of the early morning World Cup matches)!

The solution lies in breaking the coughing cycle - and it’s a multi-prong attack designed by the Respiratory Specialist that truly made my eyes pop.

Here’s what he prescribed to bring about the desired result as quickly as possible:

1. Some oral steriods
To reduce the swelling in my airways as it was inflammed. Steriods helps to speed up healing as well, so a short-term course of it is appropriate in my case.

2. Anaesthetic logenzes (not antiseptic, but anaesthetic)
They numb my airways so that I don’t feel any irritation in my throat that causes me to cough.

3. Menthol fumes inhallation
To ease the irritation in my airways.

4. Nebulizer treatment
To open up my airways and also to clear my lungs. I wear an oxygen mask, and a type of medication will be deposited in the mask that will react with the oxygen resulting in some vapor being released. I breathe in the vapor until there’s none left, which takes about 10 minutes. Then another similar type of medication is used, which also lasts for about 10 minutes.

5. A cough suppresant
To suppress the cough. The less I cough, the higher the chances of my inflammed and irritated airways healing quicker.

6. Gargle solution.
This is to help soothe my throat. It tastes like your normal mouthwash.

7. Oral antihistamine.
This is to stop the dripping of mucus from my nose into the back of my throat. This is the beginning of my inflammed airways problems as it causes the throat to be irritated which causes the cough which makes it more irritated. The dripping is a very minor one, and isn’t noticeable, but it’s enough to irritate the throat - so this must be stopped at all costs.

8. Nasal spray.
This is steriod-based solution that I spray directly into my nostrils to stop any drips. This spray taken in combination with the anti-histamine works very well.

9. Paracetamol
For my headache (when necessary).

10. Plenty of fluids
To re-hydrate the body.

11. And finally - a course of antibiotics for a few days
This is delivered via injections every 8 hours as a precaution against other infections in my weakened state. I have a temporary needle stuck near my right wrist for this purpose. This needle is taped there and has openings for the antibiotioc needle to be pushed in. It’s done this way so that I don’t have to get poked every time I needed to be given an injection.

Sounds like a lot? I was shocked!

But it’s working - and logically so. The blood tests showed it was a viral infection, the Nasal X-Rays showed nothing abnormal in my nose area, and the Chest X-Ray showed very normal lungs.

The Respiratory Specialist’s treatment plan consists of just making sure I cough as little as possible to break the coughing cycle.

The amazing array of medicines/drugs/solutions given to me as treatment is directly proportionate to my physical state when he saw me - which was pretty bad as I could hardly talk without coughing, and I had been coughing just about non-stop for about 3 weeks now.

Once the coughing cycle is broken, I will heal very rapidly - usually within 2-3 days.

It’s about 24 hours since I’ve had treatment, and I feel GREAT.

I was totally listless yesterday, but I’m full of energy today. The coughing is very much controlled and I can feel I’m getting better.

And as you can see from the amount of stuff I’ve written above, I’ll be up and running soon, with more posts on marketing you’ll never find anywhere else.

Right?

Warm Regards,

Sen Ze

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Here’s wishing that the France-Italy game for the World Cup final on Sunday is a cracker. I rooting for France if only for Zinedine Zidane to be given a grand send off as he’ll be hanging up his boots after this. BTW, my all-time favorite football player is Michele Platini, the awesome goal-scoring midfielder-captain for the French Team of the 1980s, which explains a certain preference for France, although the Italians are truly no pushovers.