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.
Brad Johns
9 hours ago
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