Saturday, July 26, 2008
Rough Night
After such a great day yesterday I had a really rough night. About 8:30 I felt a pop and a gurgle and started coughing up blood. That hasn't happened to me in quite awhile, so it freaked me out. Fortunately the RT was just walking into the room, so we got things squared away pretty quickly. First they put an oxygen mask on me (the kind that looks like the ones in airplanes) just in case I had a pneumo. While the RT did that, the nurse paged the doctor who came in record time. He did a quick assessment then had me sent down for X-rays.
Riding in an elevator while being on oxygen and having just had a morphine shot makes for an interesting ride. Especially when the transporter doesn't know what floor you're supposed to go to. I was getting quite dizzy from going up and down. Finally I pulled the mask away for a second and told her we needed the first floor. She was really irking me. Her cell phone kept ringing and she kept shouting "hola" and "what's going on chica?" to all her buddies in the hall. Ugh.
The X-ray tech was nice. He knows me pretty well by now. I assumed the position for the first round of film. Ouch. Stretching my arms up over my head was quite uncomfortable. Then I did the pose where you hug the machine. Again, painful.
I mentioned yesterday that the doc wanted a CT of my sinuses. The x-ray tech noticed that and asked if I wanted to do that right then. I figured what the heck--it'll give me a chance to nap tomorrow instead of coming down again. By the time I was positioned on the CT table, I was getting quite drowsy. I was dizzy too since I had my hearing aids out. The scan only took 5 minutes.
Back in my room I still had to wear what I call "the platypus mask" with 100% oxygen. Then when the doctor saw my x-rays he said I could take it off, but sleep with the cannula just in case. So I did. I woke up way too early this morning (about 5:00) and couldn't go back to sleep. My chest still hurts a bit from whatever happened. I'm glad I didn't have a pneumo. They think that one of the sections of my lungs that has bronchiectasis just decided to spontaneously pop.
We're keeping an eye on things. They didn't want me to do CPT just in case. I'm glad my FEV1 was high enough yesterday that I can just coast today without the CPT. I'll have it again tonight though.
More to come...
Riding in an elevator while being on oxygen and having just had a morphine shot makes for an interesting ride. Especially when the transporter doesn't know what floor you're supposed to go to. I was getting quite dizzy from going up and down. Finally I pulled the mask away for a second and told her we needed the first floor. She was really irking me. Her cell phone kept ringing and she kept shouting "hola" and "what's going on chica?" to all her buddies in the hall. Ugh.
The X-ray tech was nice. He knows me pretty well by now. I assumed the position for the first round of film. Ouch. Stretching my arms up over my head was quite uncomfortable. Then I did the pose where you hug the machine. Again, painful.
I mentioned yesterday that the doc wanted a CT of my sinuses. The x-ray tech noticed that and asked if I wanted to do that right then. I figured what the heck--it'll give me a chance to nap tomorrow instead of coming down again. By the time I was positioned on the CT table, I was getting quite drowsy. I was dizzy too since I had my hearing aids out. The scan only took 5 minutes.
Back in my room I still had to wear what I call "the platypus mask" with 100% oxygen. Then when the doctor saw my x-rays he said I could take it off, but sleep with the cannula just in case. So I did. I woke up way too early this morning (about 5:00) and couldn't go back to sleep. My chest still hurts a bit from whatever happened. I'm glad I didn't have a pneumo. They think that one of the sections of my lungs that has bronchiectasis just decided to spontaneously pop.
We're keeping an eye on things. They didn't want me to do CPT just in case. I'm glad my FEV1 was high enough yesterday that I can just coast today without the CPT. I'll have it again tonight though.
More to come...
