“This
is a damn good outlet to spew the bullshit off my brain!” Stone Cold Steve
Austin
Throughout the week, I will add bits and pieces to my
Microsoft Word Blog page. An effective
tool that I like to use for every week’s blog.
Once Monday comes around, all I need is to ‘Copy’ what I have written
and ‘Paste’ the words on my new blog’s page.
Piece of cake. The way this week
has transpired, I am behind. Hell, it is
9:50pm on Friday night and I cannot sleep.
Instead of sitting in bed, tossing, and turning, I might as well make
myself useful. Catch up on my blog. With hope people will read it this week.
In the ER/Hospital for 58 hours last week. Woke up Monday night at 11:15pm with massive
upper chest pain. A ten on the pain
scale. On two other occasions did I
admit the pain was a ten. God damn, did
that hurt. Came downstairs to take a
baby aspirin to help dull the pain.
Nothing. Woke my wife up and
asked her to take me to the Emergency Room at UW Hospital on the East side of
Madison. We get there around 1am and of
course, I must stop at the front desk to answer their questions. She knew I had massive upper chest pains and
needed to see a Doctor ASAP, but they needed to know my insurance company. Couldn’t that have waited? It was an hour or two once they took me to an
examination room, when an administration personnel asked me the same health
insurance questions. Which is funny as I
sat in the room for 90 minutes between Doctor visits to help me with my
pain. Backwards system
Make sure you get the insurance information
correct. Then we will take care of the
patient who needs immediate care! In
time, they gave me morphine for the pain that did nothing for me. They performed an EKG to rule out heart
issues, which turned out negative (Thank God).
Sent to have a CT Scan to rule out blood clots, which I had none. Returned to my room when once again, I waited
for my Doctor, any Doctor. I do not
recall how long it took. Pain remained a
ten. They gave me a different pain
killer that I do not recall. The only
thing that did was lower my oxygen level.
Nothing dangerous, but it required help to raise my levels, oxygen
flowing through small tubes in the nose to raise my levels once the medicine
wore off. There I sat for 7-8
hours. Still in pain. Seeing a Pulmonologist was the next
step. That proved difficult as UW East
does not have one. But the Main Hospital
does. Big problem was they had no open
beds. Now what. Finally, Meriter Hospital had open beds. One quick ambulance ride to Meriter Hospital !!!
Meriter has always been good to us. Both of my kids were born there. Time did not take long before I was unloaded
from the ambulance and haul up to the ninth floor where my room would be
(#993). The staff of nurses were in my
room immediately hooking me up to machines, insert an IV, etc. It did not take long before a Doctor to
arrive. He was referring my case to a
Pulmonologist as my lungs needed testing.
The plan was performing a Bronchoscopy.
Sent tubes down my throat to collect scar tissues left behind. And they wanted to do the surgery that
afternoon. At the time, I was under no
restrictions concerning food and drinks.
Since I have not had any food for 18-20 hours, I ordered lunch. As soon as my food arrived, my Pulmonologist
appeared. He had my food taken
away. Not supposed to eat or drink
anything before the procedure.
Great. He explained that he was
trying to arrange a time to perform the Bronchoscopy. 45 minutes later, he reappeared in my room
and said they would not be able to do the procedure until the following morning
at 11am. He got a foot or two out of my
room before I reordered lunch. Finally,
it arrives! Only 22-1/2 hours without
food! And the food tasted
wonderful. To top it off, I ate a huge
supper as I needed to stop eating and drinking by 9pm. Wanted to be nice and full since I needed to
fast. Oh, my pain was still a ten.
Wonderful Wednesday hits.
No food, no water. My hurry up
and wait attitude is in full gear. 11am
couldn’t get here soon enough. Around
10:45am, someone came into my room to wheel me downstairs. I arrived in the operating room/procedure
room/whatever-you-want-to-call-it room. After
swishing around lidocaine jelly for a couple of minutes (Gross), then four
squirts from a dentist-like water sprayer, it was time to get the medicine
injected in my IV to go asleep. The
Bronchoscopy consisted of small tubes, inserted into my lungs where the black
matter was located. Using salt water,
they were able to collect samples of scar tissue for testing. Scar tissue left behind by ongoing pneumonia
(The Doctor’s words). Once I was back in
my room, I started coughing up the lidocaine jelly. Must have been an hour and a half to two
hours. The continuous coughing gave me a
pounding headache. I did get Jello when
the coughing stopped. Jello never tasted
better. I was given the ok to start
eating soft foods for supper. So, I had
three pancakes.
I was discharged around 10:30am Thursday morning. I was instructed that the testing will take
time. Testing will be a “Process of
Elimination.” Not an encouraging
statement. I have an appointment with my
Pulmonologist, scheduled for September 9th. It’s the soonest I can get in. Sucks as I don’t want to wait that long. It is Saturday as I type the last
paragraph. My lower right rib cage was
sore/tender last night and today. I was
told that would be expected for up to 72 hours.
Reason I was instructed to take it easy during that time, including no
driving, staying out of the heat/sun, and overexerting my body. A rough time with a lot to think about. Inflammation in the lungs is common for those
with Lupus. Pleurisy as mentioned for
causing the pain. We need to find out
why I have dark spots, scar tissue in my lungs first. Hurry up and wait, again.
Cool news for this week:
1.) I will be interviewed for the following podcasts: First time
guest on the “Chronically Fascinating Interviews by Hydrate Club Podcast” on
Thursday. And a second time guest on the
“Cure Chronic Podcast” on Thursday as well.
2.) I will have another interview for “The Lupus Living Podcast.” The first was an informal discussion
3.) No release date for my interview with “The Real Life Show: Living with a
Chronic Illness Podcast." I can't wait for a sample to listen to it.
4.) I sent an email to “The Chronic Sisters
Podcast” a couple of weeks ago, figuring I had nothing to lose but my time, and
they are interested. Emailed a copy of
my book. The podcast is hosted and
recorded in Australia!!! They
drop ‘F’ bombs like Ruth from the Netflix show “Ozark” (Awesome show). I must be creative, trying to find unique
ways to market myself and my book.
You can find my book and logo merchandise down
below.
Amazon:
Barnes & Noble:
Find APS And Lupus
Fighter merchandise:
https://www.cafepress.com/apsfoundation/17161390
Proceeds from APS And Lupus Fighter merchandise will be
donated to the APS Foundation of America (apsfa.org), a nonprofit organization.
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