eSCAping Type 1

It’s me. Hi.

Sorry for disappearing for a month or so. Wish I had an exciting excuse butttttttt nope! Just another week-long hospital stay + recovery.

It was very similar to last time, but we caught the pneumonia before it consolidated into a solid mass in my lower lung, so an overall “better” experience. Probably because we went right to the good hospital instead of giving the local hospital another chance to comfortably kill me, first.

So, I stand by my advice on acting quickly. I also highly recommend getting yourself a nebulizer to use at home with a simple saline solution for some instant relief.

Also, quick story: 

When I first got to the hospital, they put me in the ICU since I’d go through spurts of not being able to breathe. While there, a doctor told me they needed to put me on either a ventilator or a CPAP machine – but the choice was mine! 

Now, for any doctor who may be reading this, a young patient in the ICU on Christmas day probably isn’t in the best mental state to make any sort of medical decision. Especially if they’re not already familiar with, well, anything you’re saying. 

I heard the word “ventilator” and immediately started crying, thinking about all the news programs I saw on Covid patients dying after being put on one. No, thanks. So, based entirely on that, I chose the CPAP… despite not knowing what it even was.

Another doctor came in and put a mask on me that basically just pushed air into my lungs. Ah, it was nice finally not worrying about breathing. My brain could actually focus on something else!

Like the upcoming surgery I thought I was having. If doctors are giving me a choice, the two options must be comparable. I wasn’t allowing a tube to be put down my throat, so I must have agreed to being sliced open somewhere for this CPAP insertion.

But time went on and no one came to bring me to the OR, so I wiggled out of that mask to ask my husband what was going on.

Turns out the mask was the CPAP machine. Oh. No surgery for this girl! There really was never a reason to stress or be upset.

CPAPs are commonly used at home to treat sleep apnea. Everyone knows that.

Well, I didn’t. But now you do! Just in case you ever need to.