During the night, I had a bad asthma attack. I was sitting up in the armchair because I couldn’t sleep lying down. Suddenly, I found that I was finding it very difficult to breathe. I reached for my Salamol inhaler and took a couple of puffs. No difference made. So I took another couple of puffs. Still no difference. So I tried to call for Andrew. I couldn’t get enough puff to shout so stumbled out onto the landing and leant on the banister at the top of the stairs—and called for Andrew. Eventually, he came. Then I sat down on the stairs and asked him to open the window in the bathroom to get some fresh air in and to cool everything down as it felt like I was overheating. I moved to sit on the toilet in the coolness of the bathroom.

It felt like I would not get any better quickly, so I asked him to call for assistance. He called 999. The operator from the National Ambulance Service was very calm and collected. She really helped. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive and with them about 50 minutes away, I became much better and it was much easier to breathe. At that point, I reckoned that there was no point in wasting their journey any further, so we cancelled the ambulance. I was told by the operator that should I become any worse, to call them back and they would send help again.

Today, I have been resting up at home. Tomorrow is a normal dialysis day, and on Saturday, I am heading out in Dublin with Andrew and some friends in the evening. So, today really is a rest day.

Lessons learned from the events of last night.

1. Take the inhaler and let it do its job.
2. Try to breathe and don’t get too worried. This is much easier to say than to do.
3. Help is available if needed.
4. Don’t worry.