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Getting going was difficult. I did try to rest a bit before going. That was pretty much a bust. I wanted to be on the road by noon. In spite of making it into the shower by 11:30 I did not get on the road until 13:00. I did place a call to my primary physician, ended up connecting with a case manager or nurse and really only her message machine. I suggested I was still having problems, that I would be in SLC today, and asked if they could set up a prescription that I might pick up. The drive to SLCity was brutal. I could barely keep my eyes open. Troubled breathing did not help. Loud music, often a necessity for driving while exhausted, did help a bit. I made it to the hospital by 15:00 or so.
I was not sure if I was going to be able to complete all of the "extra-curricular" requests my primary physician requested. With an appointment at 17:00, I was also trying to schedule a walk-in x-ray and blood work. I also considered going to the emergency room if I did not hear back from my primary care physician. Amazingly, I received my travel pay and did both auxiliary procedures by 15:45 or so and then went looking for the clinic for my actual scheduled appointment. I was signed in and waiting by 16:00, an hour early. A half hour later the doctor came out to see who was next, on first, or such. It turned out to be me. Because of a slight communication error, he did not notice that I was waiting or I would have been out by the time I was seen. Then again it was only a few minutes of processing.
I had not heard from my primary care, so I decided to go to the ER. Civilian, military, or V.A., even with a seemingly empty waiting room the wait was long. After triage, then checking in at the front desk, more waiting. Annoyed, of course, but quietly patient too. I was very sleepy, quite hungry, and just plane ready to be done by this point. Still, more waiting. Finally I am called back, and when I go in I realize they are rather busy in there. No one is rushing as there seem to be no huge emergencies, but they are all sifting through the work they do have.
A nurse sees me first, does this and that, and then I wait some more. A doctor visits, asks some questions, and tells the nurse what he wants. The nurse puts the table up so that I am resting at a serious incline. I grab some zzz's in all the waiting, but now do so much more comfortably. She returns and takes more blood samples and sets me up for an IV, though does not install one. At this point I am a little worried, though I am glad I set the cats up with food and water for a few days just in case I am asked to stay. I had also packed some clothes, several pair of fresh underwear and socks, a shirt, a few odds and ends, and something to read. Not bad for having to shove to get going in the first place.
More waiting. The doctor reviews the x-rays, CT scan, and blood work done earlier while waiting for the results of the new tests. When all of that is back, he says there seems to be a large amount of water in my lungs. He schedules another exam of some other sort, or at least puts in the consult, recommends a more potent water pill and potassium, has me take four potassium pills and has the nurse administer a huge dose of a liquid diuretic through the IV connection. Then I have to wait until it works and then void in a device by which they can measure the urine. All I can do is twelve ounces or so. Lots of waiting, lots of rest, and probably a good thing. No long stretch of rest but a bunch of power naps. I think they forgot me. The doctor had sort of ended the thing but the nurse did not seem to know when she finally stopped back in. I assured her that he was done. I had prescriptions to fill, so after she released me I headed there. Only a ten minute wait, there, so I grabbed a snack, enough to hold me until I could find more serious food.
When I returned, the pharmacist had three medicines. Three? I must have had a doubtful look on my face, as he was about to leave to check on things when he said something about an anti-biotic. Ah, wait! My primary doctor, and I said his name, might have sent something without calling and letting me know. Sure enough, he checked the name and all was good. Grabbing my goodies, I headed home. I grabbed a meal on the way. I debated stopping to return the tall stool, being quite weary at that time. And yet, somehow, I did just that.
I am breathing just a hair better. I will continue to take what was prescribed and try to make my future appointments. But there are so many! I think there are two on schedule and three more that might be coming in. I do get lost, I simply lose days in spite of not losing myself. My schedule can change radically at any moment as well. But, I will try.
Tired, so very tired. I hope with being tired and the slightly easier breathing that I might sleep well and long. I so very much need it. And yet I am well pleased with this jumble of necessities and wants I have tended today. I brought clothes and such for a stay, set the cats up, made my appointment, took care of two things for my primary to boot, and then pushed and took care of my breathing a bit. And still I managed to do a return on an item. Yeah, okay, it was a good if brutal day.
Later, or more hopefully, good night.
I keep thinking "congestive heart failure symptom" (byproduct of untreated HBP), but if they imaged your heart, lungs and everything else when you had that body scan, I'd imagine they would have seen something. Did they look in particular at your heart when they did that?
ReplyDeleteOtherwise lung infection I suppose. That seems to be how they're treating it.
I've had a helluva respiratory infection over the last two weeks. I've finally decided it was 90% infection 10% allergies, probably triggered by the allergies. I'm still chasing a pocket of sinus infection, and coughing up phlegm.
I can't say what, precisely, they looked at. I will say I do not fully trust them. They are trying to use this as a means of trying to get me back onto meds, which I keep explaining isn't a choice (to deaf ears). The lack of trust comes in where they suggest it might be something they might well have literal proof is not the case. I doubt if my doctor would have had a CT scanner in the region of my heart and not had them check it, if anything I almost wondered if the heart was all they looked at despite telling me it was to check my lungs. The ER doctor did suggest that it appears there is fluid in my lungs, which might make it seem as if they looked. However, that he wasn't absolutely sure of what was really there makes me think they might merely have been looking at the heart and whatever is in the lungs was fuzzy background stuff.
ReplyDeleteI actually doubt if stronger diuretics will help at all with the lungs, either. I doubt it has anything to do with that, but will check shortly. Doctors, simply put, cannot be trusted. I am sure hoping the new anti-biotic helps. I think I only slept well last night because I was so darned tired. I am not sure they even have a diagnosis for the lungs yet, they are so very fixated on the high blood pressure that if I was bleeding to death, they would mess that up preaching about... actually, that did happen. At a civilian hospital, but doctors are doctors. Idiots.