Rut.

I'm stuck. I'm stuck in a circle of illness and the inability to want to continue my life the way its has been going. I'm not sure if the illness is causing the despair that my life is not how I want it, or the disappointment of my life is causing me to be ill. Chicken and egg.

I can absolutely and truthfully admit that my illness is real. As was the 5 hours spent in A&E yesterday. That sort of thing you cannot fake. You cannot fake chest x-rays and blood tests. You cannot fake asthma or a constant and unforgiving rattle in the lungs that teases me and bullies me every time I breathe. You cannot fake a doctor saying to you that you have a chest infection and sinusitis and labyrinthitis. That you need to go home and go to bed and take all the medication and take it easy and not rush back to work. You can't pretend to be ill when the experts are poking and prodding you because science doesn't lie.

So why do I feel as if I've willed it to happen. That another day spent freelancing for a studio, doing a job that at most makes me feel lacklustre, has somehow caused my body to rebel and bring on all these sicknesses because I don't want to do it anymore. There is another vicious circle at play here… if I don't work, I don't have the luxury of doing the things that do make me happy – writing and traveling. If I don't work I don't get paid, I am a freelance designer after all. If I don't get paid, I can survive about two weeks before things start to unravel. Two weeks without work and my direct debits are in jeopardy, my bills are on the cusp of not being paid, my mortgage may bounce. I should have savings though, you think, possibly out loud, as you read this. I have a back-up plan surely, for when things are bad. But you see, I never really have had a back-up plan. I always seem to do ok. I always work just enough to cover everything. I don't work more hours when offered because I don't like what I do, enough to want to do it for more hours than is absolutely possible.

So, here I am in week three of being ill, wondering what the hell I'm going to do. You see I did something stupid. I was so miserable before Christmas with the endless rat run of my life, that I spent my tax money on a trip to Cuba. I paid out £2500 on an amazing 2 weeks in Cuba that I am supposed to be going on in 3 weeks from now, and I am left with nothing. I cannot pay my tax, my bills, my mortgage. I have no spending money to take to Cuba. And I have not been able to do a full weeks work in 3 weeks because my body (and mind) refuse to get well. But there is this nagging thought in the back of my mind, that somehow, I have made myself sick. That it is some kind of wake-up call, making me really truly face my fears and get the fuck out. 

I did attempt to go back to work on Monday. I was still on antibiotics and steroids and inhalers but I knew I had to try and make it for a few days at least. I needed to earn some money and so I managed to just scrape through those 8 hideous hours. I wasn't given anything too difficult, my brain coped as my body cried to go home but it was ok. But yesterday, Tuesday, I only made it to midday. I then had a panic attack. I was sitting in front of my computer and was about to work on a design, and the room began to swim. The printers – which quite unfairly have been moved next to the freelancers desks, and emit a loud whine and an intense heat at all times – were screaming as they forced out paper after paper. I held my head and groaned and a couple of freelancers nodded in appreciation of my pain. They felt it too but they weren't ill and so the intensity wasn't quite so great. The printer was the pain in my head, and I gripped the desk as the room swayed. As the room swayed, I blinked and blinked but couldn't focus, on anything. My breathing became shallow and I started to wheeze and as that small whine left my body, I began to panic. I couldn't do it. I stood slowly and unsteadily went to the loo. I put my wrists under the cool water from the tap and I looked at myself in the mirror, willing it to stop. I told myself not to panic and I used my inhaler. My breathing started to slow and I went back to my desk. Then wallop, it was back. I gripped the back of my chair and quickly put things in my bag, vaguely trying to form a plan. I couldn't think straight, I only knew I had to get outside, to leave the building, to go home. I made it to the lift and clung to the walls as I went to the lobby. No one was around except the two receptionists. It was lunchtime thank god, so no one had noticed my strange behaviour, my unsteady steps. But the girls at reception noticed immediately. I must have been white as a sheet. One said… Jules, and put a hand out towards me. Are you ok? she asked. No, I said. And then I just stood there looking at her. I didn't know where to go, or what to do. I just wanted someone to take care of me, to help me, to tell me what to do. And she put her head on one side and told me to calm down, and that everything would be ok, and she guided me to a little room and said she would call a taxi. She took care of me for 30 seconds and I felt such gratitude. I have no one to look after me and miss those little kind words and caring gestures. I sat there and thought how tired I was, of it all, of doing it by myself, all the fucking time, and the panic came at me again, in a giant wave that left me gasping for air and holding onto the coffee table as I tried to keep whole. 

I heard the receptionist tell the taxi driver to take me to emergency, to University College Hospital, and I didn't refuse. I walked slowly to the car and tried to breathe as the car raced through traffic and road works to the busy hospital. They signed me in and heard my rasping breath as I tried to explain what was happening. I saw the concern and genuine worry as they led me to a nurse. But the panic was making me silent… I felt if I tried to explain that my world might end. That voicing anything at that moment would turn on a tap that wouldn't stop, so I let them do their medical things and I waited. I wasn't told I had had a pretty intense panic attack. That, I think they knew was the tail end of the illness. They knew that the asthma and the general feeling of being incredibly unwell had most probably brought on the panic attack. They most probably see that everyday too so know its best just to keep to the facts and remain calm. They genuinely were some of the nicest people I have met. Maybe they saw the fear in my eyes, the loneliness too, or maybe they were just doing their job, but I felt a level of compassion that I haven't felt in a long time. 

And so with that, came an amazing restfulness. My panic subsided as I let myself be looked after. I let them do their chest x-rays and their blood tests. I let them put in drips and needles and I let them bring me sweet tea and biscuits. I let them do it all for 5 hours until the consultant had all he needed. I then let him tell me I should be in bed, that I was really quite ill and I listened to him. He was kind and gentle and explained things to me. He gave me advice and wrote prescriptions and he made sure I was ok to leave on my own. He made me promise to call him if I was worried and gave me a number. He took his time.

I had someone tell me what to do and I stopped panicking. All it took was a reassurance and a few kind words, and the relief of not having to make every single damn decision on my own, every day of my bloody life, was glorious.