:: Dramatic Me…!

I have not been here for a couple of days! I know! It’s a miracle. I hope you had a lovely rest from me!

I have been in Sydney. I went to visit my sister and to attend a work function. Instead something about lovely Sydney plunged me into an acute asthma attack. A little while after dinner, within a period of five minutes I could not breathe, talk or walk. My sister rushed me to emergency and wheeled me in on the brink of unconsciousness… and… (here comes the happy ending, obviously) the very excellent staff at RPA rushed me in to resuscitation (which is a very hard word to spell!) and they fixed me up with their magic potions. Meh. It is not fun, but I am very glad that I have such a great sister and that the RPA people were so great.

Can I tell you there is nothing worse than being very ill in a city far away from your little family and ESPECIALLY your kids. AND. Thinking you might be about to never see them again. It really is horrible and I am a bit shocked that I felt that way. I guess that is a bit dramatic sounding, isn’t it?! It is how I felt, though. I am glad it has all passed and they managed to smarten me up again…! It makes me cry a little bit every time I think about it all! Sooky me.

SO I am going to think about the less sad parts of it all… like the nice man with dementia who was in the bed next to me talking about how much he liked to watch the news…. and the fragile lady with pneumonia who told me all about her allotment in Sydney in the 60s and all the things she used to grow and the amazing Lebanese recipes she recounted…. and the nice nurse who wanted a tree change but was a bit scared of being bored and missing his friends…. and the lady in the bed opposite who didn’t really want to go home because she liked being looked after, but was really looking forward to a cup of Dilmah’s Honey and Ginger tea…!

Luckily I was able to make the flight back to Melbourne without needing any medical attention and I am tucked up safe and sound now resting and watching Big Love and Marieke’s new show ‘Laid‘ and talking to my Mum and Michelle on the phone about Tokyo and cats and noodles and things.

NOW back I go to the doctor to get a new plan for dealing with the asthma (even though my asthma had been practically non-existent in Melbourne!) and to make a plan for emergencies and work out what to do if I need to travel to Sydney and how to keep things a bit safer. And that will be good. It is important to note that even if you have controlled asthma, environmental factors can make things go a bit crazy (like they did for me) VERY QUICKLY (which I did not know) and you need to have a plan to deal with them (which I didn’t really). ESPECIALLY if you need to travel. I am not a seasoned traveller, I am a bit of a homebody, so this was a rather dramatic way to find out that I should really have a plan in place! I will do that now, d’oh.

Anyhoo… I will post nice pictures here for the next few days and concentrate on getting better. I hope you are having a nice calm non-dramatic life!

Smoochies to you!

xx Pip

PS : here is my Michigirl column from yesterday!