This really belongs in The View From Bed 3, but as there’s a real risk that I might die suddenly I wanted to reach my main audience so you know why I’ve disappeared – if I do, of course.
My bleeding-lung problem goes back about 6 months (about 50 years really, but it’s only been a serious problem this year). Normally, over the 50-year period, it would be old blood, as indicated by bruise-coloured sputum, and perfectly normal in my case. Of late, though, it has been bright, fresh blood, not abnormal even then, as excessive coughing can pop a vein on occasion.
Now, though, the severity, and the sheer volume of blood, along with other changes (frothy sputum, for example), indicates a much more serious condition, pulmonary oedema, and that can kill (as happened in the case of Stephen Gately). And that is the hospital’s diagnosis, along with a degree of atelectasis (deflation of the lungs’ alveoli,** which explains why it was so hard to breathe, and why it still is).