{"id":886,"date":"2025-02-14T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T11:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/?page_id=886"},"modified":"2025-02-14T11:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T11:25:43","slug":"susans-story-severe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/patient-stories\/susans-story-severe\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan\u2019s Story (Severe)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am 53 years old and live with my husband and three dogs. My two children are grown up and have left home. I was a healthy child, but as an adult I developed asthma which got worse over a period of time. I was treated with inhalers, and when required, courses of steroids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

When did I notice something was wrong?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When I was in my mid 30s, my asthma was becoming increasingly difficult to control. Around this time, I became very ill as the result of a viral infection, and I developed pneumonia. After I recovered from this, I noticed that my chest problems had got worse. I had a number of chest infections that required antibiotics, I developed a productive cough, I was short of breath and I also noticed that I was very tired all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How was I first diagnosed with bronchiectasis?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After a year of repeated chest infections, and uncontrolled asthma, my GP arranged for me to have a CT scan, which revealed that I had bronchiectasis. I had never heard of bronchiectasis before this, and because I had been a fit and healthy person until this point in my life, it was difficult to come to terms with this diagnosis at first. I asked to be referred to a specialist, and was referred to Prof Hill at the ERI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do I feel about the treatment?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I feel I have the best treatment available. I\u2019m a little bit unfortunate in that I have a number of allergies to antibiotics, so it\u2019s taken a bit longer to find what works best. At home, I nebulise gentamicin twice a day and as a first line antibiotic I have clarithromycin, which I take for 14 days if I notice an infection starting. However, with most infections, I usually need a two week course of IV antibiotics to clear it. Because I often rely on IV antibiotics, I have a portacath which means that I am able to administer my IV antibiotics at home. This has made a huge difference to my life, as it has reduced the necessity for hospital admissions. Now, I am able to tell when things are going downhill with my chest, and I make sure I act quickly. I find that starting antibiotics as soon as possible improves recovery time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Fruit<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"Water<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

What is the effect on my day to day living?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

At first, it took me a bit of time to get used to having bronchiectasis. Prior to my diagnosis, I was a marathon runner, and whilst I didn\u2019t give up running altogether at first, the cycle of infections and recovery made it difficult to commit to the high level of training that I was used to. I don\u2019t run now, but I do manage to do a lot of walking with my dogs and I love that just as much. Apart from that, having bronchiectasis hasn\u2019t really stopped me doing anything I want to do. I still work full time doing a job I love; I love travelling; I have a good social life. I do have to be careful about getting over-tired, as if I get run down, that can make me more vulnerable to an infection. I\u2019m also better at pacing myself and knowing when to say no to things. I used to worry about pulling out of things if I didn\u2019t feel well, but now I accept that it\u2019s sometimes necessary, and friends understand this. Overall, I cope well with bronchiectasis and lead an active life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background I am 53 years old and live with my husband and three dogs. My two children are grown up and have left home. I was a healthy child, but as an adult I developed asthma which got worse over a period of time. I was treated with inhalers, and when required, courses of steroids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":856,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-886","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"NHS Lothian","author_link":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/blog\/author\/nhs-lothian\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":false,"rttpg_excerpt":"Background I am 53 years old and live with my husband and three dogs. My two children are grown up and have left home. I was a healthy child, but as an adult I developed asthma which got worse over a period of time. I was treated with inhalers, and when required, courses of steroids.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/886\/revisions\/888"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/services.nhslothian.scot\/bronchiectasis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}