Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Neverending

Crazy. I can't think of a better word to describe my life right now. Some of its a "good crazy" but not all of it.

To update: I had my bronch last Monday, the 4th. All went well. I did require more sedation than last time, but for some odd reason it didn't take me as long to sleep it off. Once I got home, I slept for about 4 hours. When I awoke, I was sort of in a panicky-agitated mode. I couldn't breathe. I was extremely nauseated, shaky. I couldn't move. These are common side effects after a bronch, but the extent to which i was experiencing these was much more than I had in the past. However, I just told myself it would go away, and I spent the next 5 hours trying to overcome these adverse effects. At about 9:30 or 10:00, clearly things were getting better and I was having an extremely difficult time breathing. I called my doc (the doc on call was the one who happened to do my bronch-and my fav); he was concerned and told me to come to the ER. One of the concerns after a bronch is a pneumothorax. I was having pain on the side they did the biopsy, so it was definitely a possibility.

(on a side note: I did notice that my WBC count had increased that morning to 10,000 from 6,000 the week before. That is very unusual for me, and it actually pretty high, as I normally run around 3-4,000. Also, I had felt ok prior to the bronch, and even went to take a Psych Exam at school prior to the bronch)

So on arrival at the ER, my Dad signed me in, and I sat down. Then he told them about how i was transplant, and had a bronch that morning. My ER does a really good job about taking transplant patients right back-even skipping triage area. So once they signed me into the computer and took baseline vitals, everything went extremely fast. I did have a fever when i arrived, a high heart rate, and O2 sat of 85% on room air. Once I got back to the room, they did blood work, stat xray, EKG...the works. After about an hour or so, things finally calmed down. I was on 4 liters of oxygen, hooked up to all sorts of lines. They wouldnt even let me get out of the bed too pee without my oxygen (even thought I knew i would be ok-UGH). My lab work came back and it was all out of whack. My WBC count was now 16,000. My xray was also suspicious of pneumonia. UGH!

So I got admitted...finally arrived in a room about 2:45 AM. LONG day/night. My doc thinks it was just a reaction to the bronch. He said since they stir a lot of things up down in your lungs, you can have increased WBC counts. However, he said they never see them that high. I did receive 2 doses of IV Vanomycin, Tobra, and Ceftaz while admitted. So my doc thought it was safe for me to be discharged. I told him i had to be at clinicals Thursday anyway...and i was already doing IV Ceftaz at home. My NP, however, was concerned, and didn't want me to go. But i guess the doc wins in that situation. When I left, my WBC count had actually increased to 18,000. So she just told me to have a really low threshold and report any minor/little thing.

I ended up feeling fine on about Friday last week. I felt pretty good over the weekend too, and soaked up a lot of sun. However, yesterday I felt horrible and had a really high resting HR. Today was some better, and I'm hoping yesterday and today were just off days. I finish my IV antibiotics Friday, and return to clinic next week. My oxygen levels are still struggling, as several days that have been below 90% at rest. They are 86% and below with excertion (even saw an 82% today-UGH). But then i've had days where they are in the mid 90s...so it's really a confusing cycle here. Still sleeping with oxygen. I'm praying that this infection will be rid of for a very very LONG TIME as it's been really hard keeping up with school.

Tomorrow is our last day of Psych clinicals. We have 2 more weeks of classes until the end of the semester..YAY. Definitely ready for my 2 week break.

2 comments:

Kory said...

Sorry to hear how things have been going. Praying this infection will clear soon and you start feeling better so you can actually enjoy your upcoming break. Take care, Katey!

Jess said...

Thinking of you and sending you TONS of healing vibes. I hope this all clears up soon and you get back to feeling great. XO.