Hello, you may remember me, once upon a time I blogged about asthma. I blogged on a regular basis about my struggles with severe asthma (and the side effects and knock on conditions including steroid induced diabetes). I felt that sharing details of my asthma helped me cope and from the feedback I received it often helped others. I felt that this was especially the case during the dark days of Covid and shielding. I regularly tweeted on a Twitter feed linked to this blog and I made a number of friends along the way so why did I abruptly stop blogging and rarely tweeted on my @blogasthma accou ..read more

Following 138 days of a mixture of self isolating, shielding, working from home and furlough, I finally returned to work on Monday 3rd August. This was done following a number of conversations with my employer and a site visit. We all decided that with a few adjustments that I would be able to return and that my workplace would be Covid secure. I know of a number of people who have still not returned to work following the ‘pause’ in shielding on August 1st. It would be difficult for me to comment on any other individual and their circumstances which would lead them to make that decision. For m ..read more

As you may have seen, along with a few other asthmatics I did a story and video with Asthma UK and BLF in which we shared our thoughts and feelings on what it was like to venture outside following the lifting of restrictions on shielding after 1st June 2020. Below is the link to my story along with a video including 3 other shielding asthmatics and myself. https://www.blf.org.uk/your-stories/why-i-chose-to-go-outside Below is my full Video Diary / Blog on Shielding & Going Outside Shielding & Going Outside As mentioned in the video, going outside during Shielding is a very personal d ..read more

Shielding has been a long, testing and at times confusing process. In March we were told that those who needed to shield would be notified by text or letter, many of us received these, some didn’t. It wasn’t clear as to whether people needed to shield for 12 weeks from either the date on their letter or from when the Government announced the shielding guidelines. Some people found themselves on the shielding list despite not expecting, others who expected themselves to be on the list. Some found it impossible to follow the shielding guidelines, having to distance themselves from those that the ..read more

So as I reach day 71 of my shielding I thought that I would update the blog with Part 3 of ‘The Diary of Asthmatic during Social Shielding’ The first 2 parts can be found at the links below: Part 1 Part 2 Part 2 of this diary ended with me getting the all clear to continue working from home following my hospital admission. This I did until Thursday 7th May at which stage I was told by my employer that I was to be furloughed. I was gutted at the news even though I would still receive full pay as my employer would top up my wage. Getting full pay was obviously important but during my shielding t ..read more

This is the 2nd part of the story of my social shielding during the Coronavirus Pandemic. The 1st part can found at the link below: https://asthmablog1971.com/2020/05/13/the-diary-of-an-asthmatic-during-social-shielding-part-one/ So after making a steady recovery from my chest infection I was feeling reasonably well. I was still managing to work from home and I was coping ok, but gradually I began to go down hill, I was coughing a lot more than usual (the cough was dry and non productive), my chest was very tight, I was pretty breathless (which became worse with the most minor of exertion). I ..read more

I write this as I reach day 55 of my social shielding, I write this not out of self pity but for numerous other reasons. One of them is just to give me something to do, another is to try and put things in to some kind of perspective, I’m sure that others in my position can probably relate to what I am going through, how I am feeling and how I am coping. For those who aren’t having to shield it may just highlight to them some of the struggles that those of us who are shielding are having to deal with. At the beginning of my (initial) 12 weeks of shielding after receiving my texts and letter ad ..read more

‘Tis the season to be jolly………..or should that be wheezy? It is if asthma decides to intervene, and in my case (and many other asthmatics) that is often the case. The weather is my biggest problem at this time of year but obviously there are many other potential triggers about, whether it be winter bugs and viruses, additional stress that often builds at Christmas, the works parties (and all the perfumes etc that the party goers will be wearing), additional pollution due to increased heating etc. Christmas really can become a minefield for us asthmatics, fortunately for me (and for a change ..read more

While enduring yet another sleepless night due my temperamental lungs and high doses of steroids I came across a Facebook post written by a fellow asthmatic. Her name is Olivia Burdick and her post was simply called ‘An Open Letter About Asthma’ I don’t know Olivia and I had never spoken to her before reading her post, however so much of what she writes resonates with me and I would imagine many other asthmatics. Olivia has kindly allowed me to reproduce her post below, I have not edited it anyway and these are all her own words (including American spellings etc). Many thanks to Olivia. An Op ..read more

Regular readers of this blog will probably know by now that I have some kind of obsession about nebulisers. I own quite a few and tried many others, I also usually end up reviewing them. One of my more recent acquisitions was the Flyp which is an American made nebuliser (or should that be ‘nebulizer’) and is currently not readily available in Britain. So here we go: The Flyp The Flyp is a portable nebuliser, and when I say portable I really mean portable, it measures just 4.7 inches high, 2.1 inches wide and 1.1 inches in depth. This nebuliser will fit in most pockets. Just as a comparison ..read more