My Medical Week

Okay, so I have NO excuse for not posting Tuesday.  But Wednesday we left the house at 9:20 to go drop our van off for service, then it was lunch and to the hospital for plasmapheresis.

Jacob had to go with us because he seemed to have had a little cold, and I wasn't taking ANY chances with my dad's health (or my mom's...) and I have to tell you.  He was PERFECT.  All the nurses loved him, and he was just amazing.  He sat so nice and drew like 6 or 7 pictures for the "girls" (nurses).

He was polite and used good grammar and good manners and made me the proudest Momma I could ever be!  It was everything you prayed for and nothing you imagined! LOL  Seriously....my child is BUSY.  And he is LOUD.  And I love him for that.  So, I imagined that he would be tearing up and down the halls of the short stay unit terrorizing patients who had just gone under the knife.

But no.  My angelic, rosy cheeked child sat and colored, and drew, and made several trips around the corner to visit the aquarium in the surgical waiting area. :)  He was SO perfect.

Pheresis was okay on Wednesday but SLOW.  I only ran 80, so it took OVER 2 hours.  UG.

Thursday was spent recuperating, and Friday was another long day.  Only THIS time, my friend Shawn's son Rick was available to watch Jacob.  YAY!!!  I knew I couldn't expect him to be SO good again all day long.  This time we still left about 9:20, but first I had a pulmonology appointment, and THEN pheresis.  (Got all the way up to 95 on Friday's treatment! Woo-Hoo!!)

Yesterday was another day of recuperating.  Today I'm doing pretty well, especially since Doug let me sleep in. (Love you honey!)  OH, wait...he doesn't read my blog.  Oh well.

SO.  Back to pulmonology.  I have the best doctor.  If you live locally, and you ever need a pulmonologist, see Dr. David Shen at St. Mary's.  He's awesome.  He's super knowledgeable, but he also takes the time to REALLY listen to YOU, the patient.  He trusts that I know me better than he knows me, and I appreciate that SO much.  He's also very thoughtful...like he really thinks about every angle of what we can do to solve a particular problem.

In this case, it's the problem of the coughing-up-of-blood-from-the-lungs.  I had taken pictures of my suction machine (don't worry, I won't post them) with the amount of blood I had been coughing up as well as the time frame in which said coughing occurred.  He was....impressed.  Not in a good way.  Although he thought it was good I took the pictures. Go me!

So here's our plan:  I have a CT scan on Friday to rule out any "big" problems...masses, etc.  This is NOT a likely reason that this is happening, but I had a CT a year ago kind of for the same thing, so this will be a good indicator if the health of my lungs has changed drastically in the last year.  I would say it has not.

Then, he gave me 3 sputum (SUCH a gross word if you ask me) culture bottles, so that IF I start coughing up copious amounts of the red stuff again, I can hack into the cup and bring it to the hospital with the order he wrote to test for bugs (the germy kind, not the 6-legged kind).  I have 3 bottles so that I can do this 3 days in a row, and they'll test all 3 samples.

PLUS he gave me a prescription for Cipro, the ONLY antibiotic I know I can take, to have on hand in case I get really sick on a weekend, or say, if we are out of town or whatever and get really sick (lung-wise) I know I can get this filled and not worry.

So I would say our bases are covered.  He is awesome, is he not??

I was SO devastated when Dr. Lovy left.  And don't get me wrong...he is missed.  But if anyone had to replace him, I sure am glad it was Dr. Shen. :)  God is good!

Yesterday...CT Scan

Hey everyone,

Well, I survived the CT.  They had a small wedge for my head, and it helped me feel like I was breathing okay.  The IV went in "like buttah"...no problem.  CT went fine, contrast dye went in fine, but then she asked me to raise my arms and rest them up against the front of the machine.  My right arm just fell right down.  I was like, "well, I can't do that.  My MG won't let me."
  
She was like, okay, no problem, and readjusted my arms.  All of the sudden, it first felt like my IV was snagged on something and started pulling.  Then I had the all-too-familiar horrific feeling of a blown vein, and the saline filling the tissue.  It's EXCRUCIATING.  I started yelling for the tech, who was in the other part of the room....she did NOT get it.  I was run back through the machine AGAIN, and I was still crying and yelling.  She came over: "What's going on?" 

I was like "TAKE IT OUT!!!" and she's like, "Just a minute, let me check your pictures..."  I was like, you can't be serious!! She was the only one there.  I was screaming and crying....it felt like an HOUR but it was probably about a minute or so.  However, if you have ever had this happen, it is horrific pain.  It's like your arm is burning from the inside out, and blowing up.  It was HORRIBLE.

So then some other guy shows up and gets a hot compress for it, after she FINALLY takes it out.  I'm just sobbing at this point...and I have a pretty high pain tolerance.  PLUS I had already taken my pain pill.  My arm was HUGE. Then the radiologist comes in and starts talking to me like 2 inches from my face (I do NOT like close talkers) and telling me "Don't worry, it's not the dye that went into the tissue, it was just saline." A bit patronizing and completely unaware of what the REAL problem was.

He kept saying that... "It was only saline, your body will absorb it."  I was like, Dude, you are SO clueless....JUST SALINE???  It doesn't flippin' matter WHAT it was...the point is it took forEVER for this woman to get this out while I was in unspeakable pain!

So needless to say I was very shook up.

Had to grab lunch (had salad and an ice cream cookie sandwhich!!)  Then to the pulmonologist.  Doc said there was no nodule on the CT that he saw.  WHOO-HOOOO!!  Thank you Jesus!  He said there was DEFINITELY something on the X-ray, but it was not on the CT, from what he could see.  We still have to wait for the radiologist's official report, but I'm 99.9% good about it.

Still coughin' up blood, so if that doesn't stop by the next time I see my pulmonologist, he's going to do a bronchoscopy to see what's going on.

So that's what's up.
THANK you all so much for your prayers!!!