Anyone here suffer from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

I don't have it, but know what you went through- I am a Respiratory Therapist. It is very hard to recover from and very serious. Hope you continue to improve!

I got curious about acute respiratory distress syndrom after getting my discharge papers. If you google it, the survival rate is 30-60 percent depending on the website. I think 50% survival rate is average.

I have ARDS.

Was diagnosed last August after my O2 sats dropped to 42 and I spent a good chunk of time in ICU. My daughter had Strep B and had given it to me. Being an asthmatic, things like to go all crazy when they get to me and it quickly turned to streptococcus pneumoniae. I ended up with severe blockages in my lungs and scarred the majority of my left lung. I had no air movement in both upper and middle lobes and in the left lower lobe. I was told I had carbon dioxide posioning due to the blockages. I later developed a fungal infection and viral infection while in the hospital. My then 3 year old found me more or less in a coma and somehow had managed to drag my then 293 pound frame out of the bed. By the time she managed to wake me, she had been bawling her eyes out for who knows how long. To this day, she still gets scared if I fall asleep. I came home sometime in late August, early September and remained on an O2 tank up until November. I was told that the majority of people with ARDS make a full recovery and the first year is the time frame to know if you will be one of those people. I am not one of those. My doctors tired to push for me to file disability. I was told that I would likely not have any real quality of life. And I was told I would likely be on the O2 tank the rest of my life. I was 29 at the time and REFUSED to hear that my life was over and REFUSED to let my kid find me like that again, so I started making changes. My asthma went from moderate to severe because of how sick I was. I now cough up castings more often that not, something I never did pre-August 2012. I still have an O2 tank in my house. I have flair ups probably once every 8-12 weeks. And those flair ups tend to last about 3-4 weeks before I return to "normal". But I refuse to let it rule my life. When I am feeling well, I run. I lift weights. I play with my kid. I do everything I can to live my life to the fullest. Predisone ALWAYS sets me back. I usually end up with a 5-10 pound gain and I am ALWAYS on the junk for at least 2 weeks, sometimes longer. SO, my weight loss is fun trying to explain to people. First, I exercise, so that slows me down. Second, I take medications on ocassion that makes weightloss hard, if not impossible at times. But, I AM losing. Even if it IS slower than what many people would like