My ALS Journey (27/n): An Emergency Call

Unfortunately, I had an emergency call last Friday. That’s why this article is appearing a little earlier than usual.

Firstly, I would like to say that I am doing very well and have made a full recovery from my incident. However, I would like to share my story to make you aware of how cruel the disease ALS can be.

Last week, I started to feel increasingly hot and noticed that my lungs were congested with mucus. It took me about six hours to cough it up. On Friday, things got significantly worse. Usually, lying on my side in bed helps. However, when I lay on my right side, the mucus completely blocked my lungs. I couldn’t breathe or speak at that moment. Thankfully, my nurse noticed and helped me sit up in bed immediately. Unfortunately, I could hardly breathe, so my nurse called the emergency services. I was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Tübingen Hospital. There, my blood was tested, and an X-ray of my chest was taken. My suspicions were confirmed: I had pneumonia. It is now relatively complex to take blood or insert an IV for me because my veins are no longer visible and can only be located using ultrasound. So they took a blood sample from my ankle.

Unfortunately, three days later, there was a minor recurrence during the night. At around 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, I woke up abruptly because mucus was blocking my lungs again. This episode lasted about 30 minutes and repeated itself three times during the night. It then improved abruptly when I was able to cough up the mucus at around 10:00 a.m. Since then, I have been able to breathe easily again.

I am feeling much better now. I took antibiotics three times a day at home and did four inhalations. Today, one week later, I am coming off the antibiotics and heading to the beer garden.

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