Pneumonia Recovery, Side Effects and Fit to Fly (Part 5)

After a week in the hospital, it was nice to be discharged home even though I didn't feel ready. I have my own sats machine and so I was comparing it to the hospital one and it was pretty similar. My sats were consistently 93% in hospital for the last 12 hours or so before I was discharged, which seemed really low to me but nevertheless, they discharged me home. 

The second day at home, I started to feel a lot better in general and my oxygen levels improved to 94% consistently which made a nice change. Over the next 4 days it slowly increased to 95% and then 96 which felt great. I still had a high heart rate the entire time which was worrying me a bit. My resting heart rate is usually 60 - 75bpm and it was 110 - 120bpm, even when lying down. I didn't do it regularly when walking around, but even just walking to brush my teeth and back, it increased above 130bpm. I felt well otherwise, but got very out of breath when I would do anything. I felt so unfit and unhealthy, it was defintely strange. It took 2 weeks to get my resting heart back below 100bpm. 
Of course, with all the medication, I've had a few side effects. My skin has been super sensitive. Even before I went into hospital, I started suffering with eczema on my hands which is very unusual for me. The doctors were also concerned about a rash on my chest from the IVs, but I put this down to a reaction from the ECG stickers. The best things was the loose stool, which for a short period became diarrhoea. One night I went 5 times and only just made it to the toilet. Luckily, it only lasted 3 or 4 days and then settled. 

The other thing I hadn't expected was heartburn. I've never had heartburn before and I guess I didn't realise what it felt like. I had been waking up in the middle of the night the last couple of days in hospital, and my tummy was rumbling but I had mild chest pain. I thought it was hunger so I would eat a snack but then it would get so much worse and I couldn't lie down flat. At home, I did the same thing, but this time is got 10x worse after eating and so I did some googling and turns out that one of the antibiotics and the steroids causes heartburn, plus I'd been on regular ibuprofen for almost 3 weeks so of course, my mind was thinking of a stomach ulcer. I ended up getting some omeprazole to take and that helped so much. I only took it for 3 days and didn't have any heartburn for the duration which was nice. I also then stopped taking the medications, so that probably helped matters too. 

5 days after being discharged, I booked a GP appointment for follow up. I wanted to get the all clear to travel and fly. All but the first doctor had already given the green light and encouraged me to go, but the last told me to check my lungs were clear a week before travel. She said she could barely hear any wheezing or crackles when she listened so I was hopeful. Booking the GP appointment was a nightmare, because they hadn't clearly documented on the discharge paperwork, so my mum actually ended up calling the morning of to book a same day appointment as requested, only for it then not to be done. I ended up waking up in tears and having to argue and fight for it. Luckily, after 30 minutes I eventually managed to get an appointment and was given the all clear as my lungs were completely clear and my sats were normal!

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