UTS 92443: Chronic Illness Blog - Assessment 1, Semester 2

This assignment is a creative blog written from the perspective of a 69-year-old man named Thomas Bright, detailing his lived experience with chronic asthma. The blog entries, spanning from December 2019 to March 2020, chronicle his struggles with the disease, including asthma attacks, hospitalizations, and the emotional toll it takes on his life and relationships. The blog vividly portrays his physical limitations, emotional distress, and reflections on his mortality. It also highlights his interactions with healthcare professionals and the impact of his illness on his family. The conclusion reflects on the challenges of managing a chronic illness and the importance of early identification, palliative care, and a person-centered approach. The assignment adheres to the guidelines of Assessment 1 for the Optimising Care in Chronic Conditions course, requiring research, creative writing, and reflection on the patient's perspective, ethnic background, and disease trajectory.

Running head: ASSESSMENT TASK 1
ASSESSMENT TASK 1:
UNDERSTANDING THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF CHRONIC ILLNESS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1ASSESSMENT TASK 1
Introduction
Earlier, death was sudden and the leading cause of it was infection, childbirth
and accidents. However, the situation has completely changed and unexpected
deaths are rare due to development in the healthcare system. At the end of life,
people acquire a chronic and progressive illness such as respiratory distress,
cardiovascular disease and cancer that interfere with daily activities until death
(Finucane, Stevenson & Murray, 2017). The disease trajectory is the course of action
of the disease that varies accordingly. In the case of cancer, it is steady progress
and leads to a clear terminal phase whereas, in heart failure and respiratory
disorder, the trajectory involves gradual decline by episodes of acute deterioration
and recovery.
Background
Thomas Bright, a 69 years old man who lives in Victoria. He is Christian
however respect all other religious and thus has a well-grounded values and belief.
He had worked as a community volunteer for many years and personally, his belief
that good work is always pays off. He is concerned about the Aboriginal community
in Australia and thus, he wants to work further in offer better care provision and
support to them people for enhance their quality of life. He was suffering from a
chronic illness known as asthma. I had the illness from childhood and it leads to a
limitation of a number of activities due to sudden attacks. I wanted to play football;
however, my disease did not allow him to play soccer as whenever I played it for a
minute, I was panting for breath that, in several incidents, require nebulising him.
The disease was a constant friend for Mr Bright as he was no cure for it; however, in
his midlife, he controlled and managed it cautiously; thus, leading an almost healthy
life. As per the opinion of Li et al. (2019), asthma is a deteriorating disorder that
affects airways of the lungs and causes serious episodes of difficulty breathing, chest
pain, cough and wheezing. This is due to inflammation in the lungs that cause
narrowing of the airways leading to less amount of oxygen in the lungs. As a result,
the body is deprived of an adequate amount of oxygen for conducting normal
functioning, causing distress in the respiratory tract (Pavord et al., 2018).
Blog entries:

2ASSESSMENT TASK 1
December 21st, 2019
As we all know, with time, our immune system becomes weak and therefore,
the body is unable to combat diseases. I have been controlling my asthma for 64
years now and I am tired and weak. Yesterday, I again suffered from an asthma
attack because I was in the park talking to my friend. Suddenly, I felt I was having
difficulty breathing. I thought it was because of the pollution around that is increase
day-by-day; however, as time passed, it was getting hard for me to breathe and I
started coughing severely (Forsberg et al., 2018). This concerned my friends as they
informed a nearby hospital for rapid response. The oxygen concentration in my body
was gradually falling, and after many years, I felt I was dying. The disability of
expressing my pain to others and the sudden blackout was the last thing that I could
remember. When I opened my eyes, I was in a hospital room and all sorts of
machines were surrounding me. I realised that I had an asthma attack because of
which I was admitted to the hospital. I thought to myself that death was a better
option than living with such a chronic disorder, which has slowly consumed by
dreams and my life. The registered nurse informed me that I had to be in the hospital
for a couple of weeks as I had intermittent asthma. They told various facts and
precautions that I had to do while discharging. I know them all and even more. They
do not know that asthma is a best friend to me staying by my side when I was five
years old.
January 19th, 2020
After the attack, I am more conscious of it than before. The doctors told me
that the situation could be more frightening because I am aging, which is taking a
tremendous toll on my body. Therefore, my body is not capable of combating the
disease as efficiently as it used to do. Therefore, it turns that my condition is far
worse than I think and therefore, I have no option but to fight it until my last breath. “I
am dying” was the only question that I used to ask my registered nurse who assured
me that I am a tiger and I will pounce back on the disease even though, it is life-
threatening in nature. She is very sweet and she motivated me to live a fulfilling life
as she said there is much time left for me to die. Some days were good, while others
were painful. I felt that something was stuck in my chest that it is not letting me
breathe. People went and enjoyed their vacation in the New Year festivity, whereas I

3ASSESSMENT TASK 1
am stuck in this old house and a curse to my family. My son and my daughter-in-law
had postponed their vacation because of my illness. I had tried to pursue them to go;
however, they insisted that they wanted to celebrate the New Year with me.
Today, I was researching for options such as gene therapy or hematopoietic
stem cell therapy, however, and there is no cure identified for asthma. Why do I have
to suffer from such kind of a disease? What was my fault?
February 23rd, 2020
Even though I had routine managed asthma in a diligent and meticulous
manner, however, my condition was not managed. A week ago, I had a severe
asthma attack that was probed to be due to some allergen that I inhaled while taking
a stroll in my garden. A plastic tube was stuck in my throat and I was put into
ventilation for a few hours. Needles are inserted all over the body and the symptoms
of asthma include nauseous and dizziness all the time (Petsky & Chang, 2017). I am
unable to recall a few days of my life as I was there in the hospital because my vision
was blurred and I could only remember a few glimpses of my family and the doctors
treating. Today morning when I was being discharged, I forced my son to see my
GP. He was anxious and concerned about my condition as he said that I am not
completely fine and need to take bed rest for a fortnight. There was silence in the
room; however, chaos was created in my brain that can never be stopped. From the
conservation, I was completely aware of my condition, which is deteriorating and
there is no way it can be managed. I am locked in my room from when I have
reached home and I am not allowed to go downstairs or in any other room. I feel that
I am locked up in a luxury room with all amenities and death is waiting outside.
March 21st, 2020
It has been long that I have not gone outside of my room. My daily routine
involves waking up in the morning and checking the weather. Based on it, I decide
on my medication regimen. If the weather is bad, I omit my nasal spray and open the
window. I like breathing in fresh air before there is a rise in temperature and
humidity. These two conditions are found to aggravate the breathing issue (Farne et
al., 2017). I settle on my couch and read the newspaper for hours because I do not
have anything more to do. I read books, swap through my social media account and

4ASSESSMENT TASK 1
even read facts about asthma; however, the days seem to be too long. Now, I am
tired of having to do nothing where the world is busy outside. I was thinking of going
to a community centre near my house, which offers special courses for asthma
patients like me, which I had learned from the internet source. In that way, I will be
able to go outside and kill some times. People might think that I am lucky enough to
do nothing in my life, but they are unaware of the curse that is consuming me day-
by-day. Life has never been cruel to me; however, time does not stop for anyone,
and life goes on. Therefore, I have to move on from one day to another and find
something motivating that will help me feel good and excited.
Conclusion
From writing the blog, I understood how a person might feel while dealing with
chronic illness such as asthma that does not have any cure. Living with a disease
that can never be cured and is getting worse day-by-day does not only take a toll on
the physical state; however, it affects the mental wellbeing. From the blogs, it can be
clearly demonstrated that Mr Thomas Bright wants to die rather than living as he
feels guilty of living with such a disorder that not only affects him but have an indirect
impact on his family. The three specific nursing actions that I would practice are early
identification of a chronic disease or any disease that reduces the mental strain at a
later stage. The awareness of the disease can be important for both patient and
family members that may be useful in treating as well as managing the disease. I will
improve my palliative care skills, which is one of the crucial aspects of the end-of-
stage of life. This will help in improving the quality of life by understanding the needs
and demands of the patients and offering a person-centred approach.

5ASSESSMENT TASK 1
References
Finucane, A. M., Stevenson, B., & Murray, S. A. (2017). Gradual physical decline
characterises the illness trajectories of care home residents. International
journal of palliative nursing, 23(9), 457-461.
Li, X., Hastie, A. T., Peters, M. C., Hawkins, G. A., Li, H., Moore, W. C., ... & Levy, B.
D. (2019). Investigation of IL-6 and IL-6R levels as Biomarkers for Asthma
Severity and Asthma Exacerbations. In B21. SEVERE ASTHMA: CLINICAL
AND MECHANISTIC STUDIES (pp. A2687-A2687). American Thoracic
Society.
Pavord, I. D., Beasley, R., Agusti, A., Anderson, G. P., Bel, E., Brusselle, G., ... &
Frey, U. (2018). After asthma: redefining airways diseases. The
Lancet, 391(10118), 350-400.
Farne, H. A., Wilson, A., Powell, C., Bax, L., & Milan, S. J. (2017). Anti ‐IL5 therapies
for asthma. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (9).
Petsky, H. L., Li, A., & Chang, A. B. (2017). Tailored interventions based on sputum
eosinophils versus clinical symptoms for asthma in children and
adults. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (8).
Forsberg, B., Probst-Hensch, N., Boezen, H. M., Rovira, J. M. M., Accordini, S.,
Marco, R., ... & Corsico, A. (2018). Prevalence of asthma-like symptoms with
ageing.