Medical Melodrama

[IJustDontKnowAnymore1]

Ok I have no idea in the medical side of this here so please enlighten me if you do know! However I do know my mother is one of the most dramatic people I have ever met!

She says she has acute bronchitis causing asthma attacks and has been told to rest or it could bring on pneumonia.

Apparently she's had antibiotics, steroids and one of those puffer asthma things.

Her husband says she was so ill when the ambulance arrived that he thought she was going to die and they were 2 hours stabilising her...

Please can someone tell me if this sounds like it is plausible or melodrama?

Thank-you!

That comment though...
They wanted to keep her in but she wouldn’t stay.

I hear that quite regularly. I’m lucky enough. not to know enough about hospital admissions to have to ask if this actually happens?

It does poor, I discharged myself from hospital a few years ago when I’d been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis caused by gallstones. I went to A&E in the morning and was home by 10pm that night after being pumped full of antibiotics.

It’s probably one of the most stupid things I’ve ever done and I feel guilty for putting DH through the worry but it does happen.

poorbuthappy a hospital can’t force you to stay against your will (unless you’ve been sectioned). Most people who are very ill though are just glad that someone is treating them and helping them feel better to think of upping and offing. And they feel too shit to think about getting out of bed, getting dressed and getting back home to do so.

My son certainly had those three medications and was blue-lit to the hospital after I'd taken him to the doctors thinking a cold was taking him a while to clear when he was 3..

so yes, I would say plausible.

and you can always discharge yourself, it's not prison.

I was grateful for the medical treatment but not impressed with some of the nursing staff who wouldn’t believe me when I told them I had a problem with one of the antibiotics. DH wasn’t allowed to stay with me and I just wanted my own bed, hence discharging myself. If they’d actually listened to me I would have been more likely to stay.

It’s possible. I am much younger and tend to get weaker viral pneumonia with chest infections with my chronic bronchitis. Still knocks me for six. Have had ambulances called and oxygen provided - would be a lot worse for an older woman with other complications.

It’s plausible. If I get a cold I generally get bronchitis and huge asthma attacks. Nights where I have to sleep sitting up in order to be able to breathe. With very bad attacks I take myself off to a&e to be nebuliser or I get a short course of (magic) steroids from my GP. And I’ve had pleurisy and pneumonia. If you’re asthmatic you can be quite vulnerable to bad chest infections and lung diseases.

Completely plausible. My very fit, healthy DH (early 30s) with mild asthma, had to be rushed to A&E on Weds night as his cold turned very quickly into a chest infection and bad asthma which his inhaler wouldn't ease. Thankfully he responded well to a nebuliser and steroids, so was allowed home with antibiotics, prednisone, and strict instructions to up the doses of his inhaler and do it at regular intervals. Very scary how quickly it can set in. I've seen the same with my daughter...at 15 months, she had a cold in the morning, slight wheeze at bedtime, trip to out of hours Dr in the evening, blue lighted from Drs straight to Children's Ward and then 3 days in HDU before another 4 days back on the ward. Asthma and chest problems are unpredictable, and can change rapidly.

Thank-you everyone, you've all been really informative!