Nee Nor Nee Nor

Yesterday was a bit of a scary day for me.... please don't ready unless you are ok with

After a night of coughing, scary sneezes and little sleep, I decided that I would stay at home and try to rest it off. It was all going to plan until I sat down on the sofa with soup and toast in hand... suddenly I started coughing, and I couldn't breathe. It felt like there was something stuck in my throat and I just couldn't shift it. I kept trying to cough, then breathe... cough then breathe... but I just couldn't get any air in my lungs.

After about 30 seconds I started to panic and jumped up and down - I really didn't know what to do at all. Another 30 seconds and I'd started to get a bit dizzy and my vision was going a bit funny, i was SO worried and didn't have a clue how to help myself... should I go next door and try to ask for help? Should I ring 999, should I ring Ang? What should I do?

Thankfully, after another 15 seconds I was able to inhale a short breath. It wasn't much, but enough to know I was heading in the right direction. I kept trying to inhale, it was hard at first, but slowly the breaths were getting longer and I was getting enough oxygen into my lungs. After a few seconds of breathing I rang Ang to let her know what had happened and to let her know that I was going to go the the hospital ASAP....

... anyway, a mate from work took me to Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge, and all the way along the journey I was petrified that it was going to happen again. I had started shaking (probably mild shock) and was sweating like a sweaty thing!

My lovely wife, Ang, met me at the A&E department and within a few minutes they were taking my pulse and making sure that I wasn't getting worse. I was then met the doctor who sent me to have a couple of chest x-rays to make sure that I didn't have a collapsed lung... luckily, the results came back ok and there was nothing too drastically wrong with me, so the Doctor told me to book an appointment with my GP as there was nothing they could do at A&E for me.

Huh? Nothing they could do? I'd almost died, and a few hours later they were sending me away from hospital!? Well, I accepted what the doctor said, and prayed that I would be ok until I saw the doctor today.

Thankfully I'd booked the doctors appointment on Monday for today, so popped in before 9 this morning. Having talked to the doctor, it turns out that I have a swollen windpipe and an over active mucus (sp?) gland. Anyway, the choking I experienced yesterday was because the mucus got stuck in the wind pipe... nice hey? Also, my scary sneezes are actually a diaphragm spasm - where the muscle just refuses to work for a few seconds because it is exhausted of me sneezing!! So, I've now got to take an inhaler for the next 2 months which will hopefully clear things up and reduce the swelling.

I'm so glad that I now know what is wrong with me. My scary sneezes really were scary, and as for my choking episode yesterday... where do I start?! Let just hope that the inhaler does the job!