MY ILLNESS HISTORY

 I have decided to write this blog post about my recent medical experience mostly for my own edification as well as to make sure my memory bank doesn’t suffer and refuse to provide a withdrawal when I want it.

So, to begin. I turned 75 on November 20^th, and was miserable the entire day because I’d received my second Shingles shot the day before. I suffered from every single side affect listed on the handout and quite possibly some that weren’t listed. I was miserable.

This was followed by a number of good days and a great Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving, my left lower wisdom tooth decided it was not happy. On Saturday, I called my dentist’s emergency number not once, but twice. I did not receive a reply for the entire weekend, but had some of John's Percocet which I took to keep the pain at bay. When I finally got in there Monday afternoon, they took x-rays. When my dentist came into the room, I strongly believe she flat out lied to me. First, one of her staff had told me she had the emergency phones and that they didn’t always work well if she was at the cabin. Then, the dentist herself told me that she had been able to only hear part of the message and then somehow lost it. She did say she heard Paula and I’d really like to know how many patients she has named Paula. Finally, when I told her I called not once, but twice, she didn’t have a response. I’ll be changing dentists after the first of the year because I cannot now trust her.

My dental exam was followed by a trip to Bellevue to see an endodontist. His staff person did some kind of a full head x-ray for which I was charged $245, and I still don’t know the purpose of that x-ray. The x-rays sent by my dentist did indicate I might have an infection in that wisdom tooth, so I’d need to return for a root canal the following day…another trip to Bellevue. I did, the root canal was done, and I seriously believed my lips were going to split because my mouth was held so wide open for more than an hour. Not a pleasant experience, but, hey, it was done and now I’d be just fine.

On December 3^rd, I woke up with horrible chest/throat pain. When I checked in with the MD, I was told to go to Urgent Care which I did. I was not having a heart attack and no matter what they tried, they could not knock the pain back (from a 9) to less than a 6. They also did a chest x-ray and a CT scan. Neither of those showed a reason for the pain in my chest and trachea. They sent me home without resolving the issue.

For the next two weeks, I chatted on-line with doctors, had an appointment with one on December 14^th, had some additional blood work and returned home. On December 17^th, I saw a different doctor who ordered additional blood work and sent me home. This doctor called me the morning of December 18^th, told me that my red blood cell count was extremely low which could indicate I was bleeding internally. I should go directly to Urgent Care, not collect $200, and quite possibly plan to be transferred to the hospital for a day or so. My granddaughter came and drove me to Urgent Care where she dropped me off. That was the last I’d see of family for a week.

In Urgent Care, they drew more blood, sent me for another CT scan of both my chest and my abdomen. After a few hours, the decision was made to admit me to Swedish Cherry Hill (SCH). I got my first ride in an ambulance which was quite bumpy and very short, but the three gentlemen responsible for me were exceedingly nice. At SCH, they took me down hall after hall, up an elevator and surrendered me to room 418E.

My nurse was a very nice young man named Kevin. He did all the things nurses do, i.e., vitals, checking back on me, etc. I was not to get out of bed alone but was supposed to call the nursing station and say I needed to get up. I really hated that part. Friday passed into Saturday and a very nice Dr. Phan came to see me. He asked questions which I answered and proposed some treatment options; however, Saturday ended without any treatment or definite plans for treatment.

When Sunday morning arrived, I was feeling extremely hopeless. Dr. Phan came in to see me and all I could do was cry and say I felt hopeless, that every day I was worse than the day before. I don’t know if it was the tears or what, but by noon, I was downstairs in an OR with a cardiologist and his team. There is a membrane around the heart called the pericardium. It usually has a bit of fluid to ease the heart’s beating. When they put in a drain, almost 12 ounces of fluid was removed from the pericardium. It was a lot and was sent to the lab to see if it would grow any bacteria or whatever they would look for there. The cardiologist left the drain in place and said he would return on Monday to take it out.

Back in my room, I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to breathe. It had felt as though there was a big wide rubber band around my chest which kept me from breathing normally, plus it hurt when I breathed. The pericardium continued to drain and the nurses had to change the bandages and my nightgown and top sheet at least twice. They then had to change it a couple of more times, but by early Monday morning when a new bandage was applied, it remained dry until the following day.

Lungs are also surrounded by a membrane, called the pleural membrane. It too has a minimum of fluid to ease the expansion and contraction of the lungs. The pulmonologist had also arrived the previous day to remove the fluid from my lower left lung, but had to reschedule because they were doing my heart. This happened Monday afternoon. Using an ultrasound so he could see where the needle should go, a drain was placed into my lung and almost three cups of fluid removed from the pleural membrane. It didn’t take long before I could pretty much breathe normally and without much in the way of pain.

The cardiologist did not return to remove the drain on Monday. Instead, another cardiologist appeared at crack of dawn Tuesday and pulled it out. It looked like I’d be able to go home Tuesday afternoon. I was so happy about that.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I now had a new doctor. She was not in favor of sending me home since there were no answers as to why this had happened to me. The one thing all the doctors agreed on was that my problem was not caused by the root canal. She wanted to wait another day and see if there would be some kind of report from the lab showing bacteria or something else that was responsible. She was also concerned about my anemia and wanted to make sure my red blood cells were being replenished before releasing me. Okay, I could wait until Wednesday.

Wednesday came and it was the same story. Not enough information available and the doc didn’t want to send me home only to have me return in a day or so. She also wanted to have a follow-up plan so that I didn’t just go home and that was it. I could wait another day, and she was fairly positive I could go home December 24^th.

Finally, late morning on the 24th the doc came to see me. She would be discharging me that afternoon and my discharge papers would contain all the information she was providing verbally. That information was basically that my problem was idiopathic, meaning tests hadn’t been able to identify a reason for this happening. It could have been a virus. She also hypothesized that because of all the inflammation in my chest, my bone marrow had simply decided to make fewer red blood cells, but my count was rising and looking good.

She placed me on 600 mg of ibuprofen for a week or two to make sure the chest inflammation was reduced, another med called colchicine which helps with the heart and a tummy med to keep the ibuprofen from playing havoc there. An appointment was made for the following week with my regular doctor. Cardiology and Pulmonology would be calling to set up appointments to follow up and make sure I was continuing to heal well. At about 2:00 pm on December 24^th, my daughter-in-law, Angie, picked me up and brought me home.

There are two additional things that concerned my doctor. There is a lymph node behind my breast bone that is enlarged, plus the CT scan showed a new nodule on my right lung. The doctor wants pulmonology to check those out just to make sure the lymph node swelling is due to my chest inflammation and the nodule is nothing about which I should be concerned. This is all good and I don’t expect to receive any bad news from any of these appointments.

I’ve a feeling my little medical episode will continue into the new year, but won’t last beyond the initial follow-up appointments. Meanwhile, it’s amazing how weak I became after not walking or doing exercises for most of December. I plan to begin working on that tomorrow, December 26^th. First, I’ll do as much of my exercises as possible. Then, I’ll walk just around my cul-de-sacs a few times a day to build up my stamina. I don’t know if I’ll be ready for the hour-long walk I was doing with my neighbor, but that is my goal and whether I reach it on January 1^st or January 15^th isn’t important…just reaching it is what matters.

One final note. I know I posted about being horribly depressed at the beginning of December. Perhaps Karma (not my dog, but karma karma) decided I needed a lesson about how good my life really was/is. This medical episode was Karma’s way of showing me how important it actually is to be HAPPY and HEALTHY. It’s my most serious wish that Karma take note of my efforts to return to the HAPPY person I generally am, that I CHOOSE to be HAPPY as well as my efforts to be HEALTHY by renewing my exercise and eating well efforts.

I think this is a good lesson on which to end an absolutely horrible year. I’m looking forward to 2021, to exercising, walking, laughing, spending time with family and friends, eating very yummy and healthy food and seriously appreciating all the positivity that inhabits my life on a daily or hourly basis.

Finally, while I know not everyone who posted encouragement and positive thoughts on Facebook reads my blog, I’m so very very grateful for each and every person’s comment. Each and every one made my ill heart swell just a bit, brought a smile to my lips and reminded me how many of you love and care for me. I’m exceedingly thankful all of you are a part of my life.