Friday, August 19, 2016

Health Issues


I had to have a PET scan today, so I had to take out all my earrings. All five pair :)
I feel so naked!

The steroids didn't have any affect on the dense mass in my lower left lung. The doctors are perplexed. So the next course of action was a PET scan. It's nuclear medicine. The technician sticks an IV in and injects some radioactive material. Wait one hour while it makes its way around the system. 

Then the PET scan itself. Very uneventful. I lay as still as a dead person. Well, at least one who can breathe. That took about 30 minutes. I almost fell asleep; I caught myself and stopped a sleep jerk. You know that feeling when you're not quite asleep and a body part decides to to a *spaz* movement. Glad I caught it; I'm sure we'd have to start the test again. It wasn't claustrophobic because you don't stay in the "tunnel" thing; however, it could be problematic for some people in that they wrap your arms at your sides like a mini burrito. Better than having to extend my arms over my head for 30 minutes. 

The theory is that the mass should be the only thing the reacts to the nuclear medicine: the only glowing area. If that's the case, surgery to remove it. If, however, there are multiple glowing bits, then treat for cancer. 

I hope this yields something! I already have an appointment with a thoracic surgeon at the end of the month. 

And I should hear something about the PET scan next week. 

Fingers crossed. 


Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Summer of 2016 Sucked

May rained the entire month and was cold and miserable. We kept trying to find the right time for us and the garden and it never worked out well. Then on May 27th, I thought I was having a heart attack in the middle of the day.

I called my doctor and they said get to the emergency room. So I drove myself 26 miles or so to get there. Got hooked up to an EKG and no heart issues. One chest xray and on CT scan later, and they found a large dense mass in my lower left lung. So home I went with the diagnosis of pneumonia and a prescription for antibiotics.

One week later, and I still feel out of breath and exhausted. Went to the family doctor and he gave me what I thought was a decongestant but it was a cough suppresent. With that at least I could get some sleep so I wasn't so exhausted anymore but still didn't feel right. Had a follow -up appointment  with a pulmonologist on July 19 and he didn't like the sound of my lungs, so I had to go back to the hospital for another CT scan.

The mass was unchanged. Still large. Not larger. Not smaller, It didn't look like cancer and frankly the doctor was puzzled. So after that? bronchoscopy. The doctor takes a small tube, shoves it up your nose, and down into your lungs. I was promised that I would be "heavily sedated" but I was aware and awake the whole damn time. So much for that.

Go back in a week to find out the results of the biopsy only to be told they only know what it's not. It's not an infection. It's no fungal. They are pretty sure it's not cancer and they really have no idea. What now then?

Prednisone for two weeks and then another chest xray. They are treating with prednisone because they think it's Bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP), also known as cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, is a form of non-infectious pneumonia; more specifically, BOOP is an inflammation of the bronchioles (bronchiolitis) and surrounding tissue in the lungs.

My garden is a shambles. It's been so muggy and humid this summer that staying outside for longer than 15 minutes has me wheezing and struggling to breath. 

No tomatoes for sauce or canning. No peppers for making into hot sauce. This year has been a failure. The goats stopped producing enough milk to bother to milk them anymore because of the heat. My rooster got snatched by something over the weekend and he was my  last original chicken. And my hens seem to be on strike and we haven't gotten an egg in about a week.

Fuck my farm this year.