Sunday, May 27, 2012

A Local Girl

There was a story on our local news about a little girl with pulmonary hypertension. If you want to watch the video click here. It is so sad when you know a young child has had to deal with this. While I struggle now I was pretty healthy up until about twenty years old. I cannot imagine how hard it is to be a sick child. Especially if you have healthy siblings running around. I thought they did a great job of explaining what pulmonary hypertension was in the video.

The weather has been very bad humidity wise. It was 85 yesterday and I struggled when I left the house. I think the temperature doesn't help but primarily it's from the humidity.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Fluid Gone (at least for awhile)

On Friday I had my procedure, the thoracentesis where they removed the fluid which ended up being about one litre. Ironically, this hurt more than the first time they did it. Not as much as the last time though, when I ended up with a chest tube.

I came home quite sore and kind of took it easy for the weekend. On Sunday my son came over. We went to the mall to replace his broken cell phone and picked up cake to take to my mother's. I came home and tried to take it easy but by now my right hand was hurting, particularly around my thumb. When they had the needle in my back I was required to grab onto a hospital table and hold tight. I think that injured it somehow. Yesterday I had to go see a doctor who told me to put ice on it and take some antiinflamatories. While I was waiting for the lung procedure I had to go off of my coumadin. This means that I must have shots of Lovenox in my belly to keep my blood thin (only works for about twelve hours like heparin.) I had to not have it Friday morning and begin again Friday evening. My belly looks horrible. It's one gigantic bruise and some huge lumps which are painful. Yesterday my INR was 2.5 which means I got to stop the painful, expensive shots. YES!!! I was thrilled.

Even though they removed the fluid I am somewhat breathless. I had my oxygen tank refilled today. At night when I put on my mask and feel the oxygen going through my cpap mask it is pure heaven. The machine also adds moisture.

My entire family (mother, brother and his wife, sister and her "friend" are going to my mother's vacation house which is a town my other brother and his family live in. I was asked to come but a. oxygen would be a problem and b. there wasn't going to be enough room. It kind of depresses me that life goes on. I am left out of many things and no one seems to even think how that makes me feel. I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for new sheets today and I saw these people running and having it so easy and I thought how they will never know how I feel. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Somedays I have a lot of spunk and can push through but when you have several bad days in a row it's really hard.