Wow. Not like my life ever takes a break

Let's see, there's the fridge that died in mid June and leaked all over the floor. New Maytag fridge was delivered July 17th. I got a fridge with freezer on the bottom and fridge on top :)

There was Terry who took mdma on July 9th, and OD'ed  and was at hospital until he signed himself out against doctors orders on the 18th after they almost killed him. I'm not going to go into details other then he was admitted in ER of the Lakeshore on the 10th, was transferred that night to St Mary's where he was the 11, 12, and 13th on life support. Friday the 13th, they returned him to the Lakeshore ICU and finally Saturday the 14th, when I saw him at 6am he finally recognized me.  He was transferred out of the ICU to 4W on Sunday night and then Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit of a nightmare. He came home Wednesday the 18th.

In that time he had multiple heart attacks, his kidneys shut down, he ended up with a nasty heat rash that became prickly heat. He also had rhabdomyolysis pretty intensely. After all of this he's very weak and really thin, has no muscles to speak off, but he will survive. 

My truck ended up with water dripping due to condensation in the passenger side, pretty bad. It was caused by idling in the truck. There was two days where I was so upset at Terry I spent hours in the truck idling [Because it was 34C and I couldn't deal with heat and being upset]. I took it to my usual garage and at first the guy told me TO GET RID OF MY TRUCK. That the problem would cost thousands to fix. THat it would be a minimum of 10 hours of labour. In the end, this garage is awesome. It cost me 5 hours of labour to get the main heater core gasket changed. I talked to two of the guys at work and they both agreed that it explained my problem and the garage took good care of Me.   Speedy in Kirkland have awesome mechanics. 

Then it rained on the week-end and the roof LEAKED AGAIN in my fucking closet. Like really?

Lung function is 100%

When I don't have allergies or asthma.  When I do, well it's anyone's guess. However this is good news. After getting told off for "having the lungs of someone who's been a heavy smoker for 30 years" apparently my lung function is 100% when I don't have asthma, allergies or some infection.

Apparently asthmatics can show perfectly normal breathing tests when they are feeling fine, despite the fact that the breathing test appeared like one of the worst workouts that I'd done. It was done without any medications too.

At least it proves what I said to the doctors, that before I got sick with laryngitis, I had good lung function and I was as healthy as I Could be for someone who has lived with smokers all her life and who smoked at some point in her life.

The Doctor recommended that I take the steroid asthma meds twice a day. So I will be taking Pulmicourt for the rest of my life twice a day to keep my allergies at bay.

The other good news is that the Allergist's office called me back asking if I need an appointment. I called back and said what I need it for. Hopefully I will be called with an appointment.

Breathing tests at the Lakeshore

This morning I was at the Lakeshore at 8:40 for a breathing test at 8:50. They had not told me how demanding it would be and I had not eaten anything, since these days I eat my breakfast when I get to work.

The lady was very nice, apparently she's been doing these tests with people for 12 years. She was calm and very patient.  Ultimately we had to repeat some tests until it was within acceptable standards and repeatable. Reminded me of QA.

It took till 10AM and at the end I was given Ventolin which makes me nauseous and affects my stomach. By the time the tests were done I felt like I had run a fricken marathon.  In two weeks I go back to the Lakeshore to see the respirologist and I suspect he will adjust the medication I am currently taking.

He was right, I have lots of allergies all the time.  That has been my normal for years.  I guess there was a benefit going to the Hospital for pneumonia vs going to the Statcare clinic.

Followup at the Lakeshore general hospital

Saw the lung specialist at the Lakeshore hospital yesterday.So the sputum test was negative. No bacteria fuelling me to be sick

However they did a plethora of blood tests before I left hospital last month. One of them shows elevated IGE's.  That means I show signs of being highly allergic.  Now I know I already have allergies, like grass, ragweed, trees, feathers, kapok, wool, tobacco, dust & dust mites, mould, and cats. That's what I can remember, there might be more. Could be I show signs of being highly allergic because I sleep with my cat and a feathered comforter and pillows. Could be that I show signs of being highly allergic because of the fungus. Who knows.

Now have to schedule an appointment with an allergist to get a skin test for Aspergillus, because he suspects I have allergic bronchopulmunary Aspergillosis

He's also having me do breathing tests and lung capacity tests to check the level of my asthma.

If I have ABPA, then I will need to take steroid asthma meds for life.  This isn't so bad except for the fact that I have osteoporosis and steroids are bad for my bones.

I did tell him about the 20 km 4 hour hike I did in Mauricie park and the 2km 1 hour down a mountain hike I took in August in Cape breton, to point out, that I was stunned my lungs were bleeding. I quit cigarettes back in 2006 and didn't appreciate that the doctor/nurses at the lakeshore gave me a lecture on my bad lungs, and telling me I had signs of heavy tobacco use for  20-30 years. That I am in good shape.  To his credit he never said a thing about my smoking and is actually looking beyond to understand why I landed in the hospital with an infection that caused my lungs to bleed.

Don't I look thrilled?

Just a few minutes before I was discharged from the Hospital.

So I spent the night at the Lakeshore General Hospital

Last night around 9pm, I was sitting around listening to music and I had a coughing fit, at which point I spit up mucus, that had some fresh blood in it.  After checking it wasn't bleeding nose, or bleeding gums, and it happened a few more times, Terry insisted we go to the hospital. We arrived at the Lakeshore General Hospital at 10:20. and I was  # 98. Whether it meant I was the 98th patient they saw at the ER that day or if their numbers restart at #1 all the time?  No clue.  I was seen by the triage nurse around 10:30 and by the emergency registration person 5 minutes later. They confirmed the info they had on file for me was still accurate and printed me a new hospital card.

I was seen around 1am by a resident doctor who asked me a plethora of questions. She decided I needed blood tests and a chest x-ray.  I had chest pains on the right side, which I had assumed were more muscular from banging into a glass door at lunch time yesterday, because I assumed it was unlocked. It was locked.  After the blood in my mucus I didn't know anymore.   I had to wait another 30 minutes until the intern consulted the night ER doctor to make sure she hadn't overlooked anything. Then the nurse came in and took 2 vials of blood from my left arm and left a giant bruise that's still coming out today.  After which I was sent to Xray. No lineups there, and we returned to the ER desk to give them the XRAY tags, after which I was sent back to the waiting room and told to wait till I was called.

There was signs up saying that blood tests results take 2 hours so I figured I'd be there till 4, but around 3:30 they called me in. I was told I showed signs of being a long term 'heavy smoker', and that I needed a CT scan first thing in the morning, like around 7am. I asked if I could go home to sleep, I was told they wanted to keep me  in case the coughing up blood got worse so they could monitor me. That they would find a spot where I could get some Zzz's. Terry went home at that point to put Zoey to bed and came back after she was sleeping.

They had found a stretcher in the corridor near the nurse's station marked by the letter "L", where I was put at that point. I was told I had to wear gown but I didn't need to remove my pants.  So I took off shirt, put on gown and tried to sleep. Terry came back and found me.  Stayed with me till 4 and he went out for a smoke and said when he came back I was sleeping under the watchful eye of a nurse, so he went back home to get sleep figuring I'd call him the minute I woke up. 

At 6:30 AM they got another patient and moved me to "N" instead, and moving me is what woke me up. I was asleep cradling my purse. I'm surprised I slept in a corridor for about an hour in a half. But after I was moved I was put under bright lights and the person that got my spot was this moron heading to Cuba who got so drunk at the airport, he fell on his face and the plane would not left him on, his choices were probably police or ambulance.   He kept saying he wanted to leave.....

At 6:45 a nurse came to take my pressure and temperature and otherwise check my vital signs. Around 7:45 AM the head day ER doctor came to tell me I was still on the list for the early morning CT scan, asked me about the coughing blood the night before and if I was still, I told him yes. He said that I looked in really good health and that the CT scan should provide answers after which I'd be seen by a lung specialist.

I was pretty anxious at that point, especially since my phone was dead, so I had no way to keep my mind from thinking the worse. What comes to mind when people cough blood is lung cancer.  I didn't think though that someone that sick couldn't be in as good a health as me. I went to see Egypt Falls and did the skyline trail in Cape Breton in early August. I also did this advanced trail in Mauricie national park earlier in the season. Both were up and down very mountainous trails and while I had to stop to catch my breath at times, I have always had to do this going up mountains even as a teen.

I had the CT scan around 8:30AM. When I was about to be put in the machine, the nurse looked for a tube in my arm and no one had prepared me. So she put a tube in.  Where they put iodine inside you  for the scan. It feels weird when they put the iodine you feel like you're about to pee yourself and drool all over yourself. Sensation lasts for 30 seconds but it's weird.

ARound 9:45 the lung specialist came to find me and asked a bit of my history again. Said it was possible I have atypical pneumonia and also bronchiectasis.  That the bronchiectasis was caused by some really bad infection I may have had years ago and that due to that, I have parts of my lungs that have a harder time clearing the crap inside the bronchi and that it could cause bleeding.

I have been put on 2 types of antibiotics. One in the penicillin family and the other in the tetracycline family. I was given more blood tests, 5 more vials were taken out of the tube left in my right arm after CT scan.  I am also going to have to go take a sputum test at the chest institute. They will call to give me an appointment.  I will be seeing the Lung specialist again 2 weeks after that test. He also told me to call if the bleeding got worse.

It's stopped for now thankfully. It's really unerving to cough up fresh blood even in small amounts. And while I thought it was the right side ,where I have some muscular pain and it hurts at time to breathe, the bleeding is coming from left side.   Could be near where I broke the ribs. He noticed I had "Overlapping" ribs. Told him I had broken a rib back in February, but I hadn't seen anyone for it.  He commented "There's nothing we can do for a broken rib except to give pain meds"

So I was discharged around 10am. Was there 12 hours.  I'd have more heavy coughing since the laryngitis a few weeks back and I'd commented more then once to Terry that I wondered if I might not have pneumonia. I had some of my work colleagues and underlings who have been commenting the past few weeks how my cough wasn't improving. The irony is that I hadn't coughed as much yesterday and I thought I was finally better!