Day 10 of 365- difficulty in breathing

10th of January 2022

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I only mentioned yesterday in Day 9 of 465- an hungry man is angry that I came back from church feeling tired and with a little bit hungry, but the hidden part of that write-up is that I had difficulty in breathing (I’m not asthmatic). As mentioned in some of my previous posts, I’m hypertensive, and sometimes have difficulty in breathing when exposed to dust and excess heat. I mentioned my challenges with excess heat in Poor heat resistance; I can’t take it anymore, and how it eventually resulted in hallucination in another article titled Heat and Hallucination; I’m losing my mind. I’ve always had a poor heat resistance, but it’s actually fine provided it doesn’t mess with my ability to breathe, dust on the other hand is a big-bad which I do not like to mess with.

Yesterday was different, I have no idea what went wrong, I dressed up as early as I could while having my face mask on as usual, I didn’t notice any form of dust on the way hence I can’t conclude that the dust was responsible for my attack. While in the vehicle (a public transport), I suddenly experienced a striking headache towards the centre but on the left side (I know this description sucks but I’m out of words), the pain lasted for about 20 seconds and vanished, it came back about two minutes later and lasted for the same 30 seconds duration before vanishing completely. I thought that was the end and totally forgot about it until I got to church. I got to church a bit late, praise and worship session was over, opening hymn as well, I got in during the announcement, few minutes later the offering session came through followed by choir ministration and kaboom time to listen to the sermon came. While in a relaxed state, I had a very sudden and sharp pain in my chest almost like my heart was being squeezed rom within, I was about to shake it off since it wasn’t the feeling wasn’t new (I already mentioned being hypertensive) when I suddenly realised that I could hardly breathe. I took several deep breaths, yet it felt like only a very insignificant quantity of air was coming through, it was a very weird struggle which the person sitting beside me knew nothing about. I tried adjusting my sitting position several times but there was no improvement- the only solution at this point was to locate the nearest pharmacy for a tablet called “Vasoprin” or perhaps “nifedipine”- it has it’s uses but I wouldn’t talk about this as I do not intend to prescribe this to anyone by accident. I only use these tablets in special cases and about once in a year since I’m already placed on another set of medications which I’d rather not mention.

Long story short, I walked out of the church without telling anyone what was wrong, I knew I wasn’t going to die since it wasn’t my first time of feeling this way plus I already have an estimate of how long I can last with difficulty in breathing. I had no idea where the nearest pharmacy was or is located, hence I had to ask peeps around, the responses I got were disappointing- there are only two pharmacies around, one was no longer functioning while the other wouldn’t be open until 11 am or after since it was a Sunday. At this point I knew the universe was against me, but I kept telling myself I wouldn’t die. I took a deep breath and went back to church while managing my breath according to the quantity of air that was getting in- it was a very dangerous move but as mentioned above, I know how long I can last without adequate oxygen hence I monitored my breathing by constantly checking the time to make sure I do not exceed my mark. The plan B was to wait till service ends, this will be a few minutes after 11 am, after which we’d simply go home and go for my medication since there was no assurance that the pharmacy would be open any time soon. Whoever was beside me or looking in my direction must have been wondering why I kept staring at my wrist watch, they’d never know the amount of pain I was going through and how badly I was using the last energy within me to calculate how much time I had left before I become unconscious.

The service ended much faster than I expected, I took a final deep breath after it ended, had to wait some extra minutes so I could go home via a Pastor’s car, he was going in the same direction as I was. I didn’t want to go through the stress of jumping from one public transport to another, it would be a very risky move as I would be using more energy and oxygen, exposure to dust would also be disadvantageous- I could drop dead on the road and nobody would understand why, all they’d say is “he was perfectly healthy few minutes ago, he must have had a spiritual attack or perhaps offended his ancestors”…… ha-ha, Africans and all things spiritual.

I got to my junction, took a bike home and landed on my bed- by this time my chest was super heavy and felt like my heart was about to explode, I also felt extremely tired. This tiredness is a result of my inability to breathe properly hence my muscles were getting weak. I almost forgot that I had to save myself from dying hence I had to jump out of bed at light speed and went for those medications- bisoprolol, telmisartan, rabeprazole and clopidogrel. I hope I spelt them correctly, it doesn’t matter if I didn’t since nobody is gonna notice the slight misspelling. Surprisingly, I used those drugs and I immediately felt okay, I felt relieved instantly, thus making the ordeals of the past hour to feel like it was only a dream. I could have died you know… I sometimes wonder how those drugs are designed; they work within seconds of using them thus making me constantly feel like my life depends on their availability. I immediately was able to breathe properly within seconds of swallowing those tablets, but the chest pain didn’t vanish. There was only one way for the pain to go away- I needed to sleep. About one or two hours of sleep after taking those medication usually helps with the pain, as the drugs actually require rest if I’, expecting it to work in full capacity. Unfortunately, I had a lot of errands to run and a lot of responsibilities to cater for as mentioned in Day 7 of 365- the feeling of powerlessness and Day 8 of 365- a very stressful weekend, hence I didn’t get the chance to sleep until almost midnight. BY the time I went to bed, my chest was really heavy and I felt like my heart was gonna pop out if I didn’t force myself to bed. Off to bed I went and didn’t wake up until girlfriend’s call came in (girlfriend = actual girlfriend).

Woke up this morning feeling better than yesterday but with a little bit of pain, had to order breakfast from the nearest restaurant and settled for my medications immediately so history wouldn’t repeat itself. Altogether I’m hale, hearty, and glad to be alive!