That's where we're at right now. I have to say that since I last posted about the goings on around here a bunch of things have happened that I haven't had time to write about.
At about 7:30 Saturday night I had to call 911 for Martha. She woke up in the morning (after having spent 3 days as an in-patient) with some shortness of breath. As the day went on it became more pronounced, and by the time I called she was at the point where she was only able to speak in 2-3 word phrases because of the level of distress she was in. With the return trip to the hospital she had more blood work and a chest x-ray which found a pleural effusion at the base of her left lung. So the doc ordered a CT scan of her chest to look for pulmonary emboli and/or pneumonia. Neither of these were present, but the CT revealed an effusion in the right lung as well.
We have no idea what caused these to show up. Since Saturday night, she's been to the doc twice more because of some additional flare-up of symptoms. She's had more blood work done, specifically a CRP and an A&A. Specifically, the doc suspects that there may be some inflammatory or auto-immune cause, but they are not really sure. She also has an appointment for an echocardiogram and a consultation with a pulmonologist over the next week.
I guess there is a great deal of question as to what is going on. The best news would be that all of the problems that she's been dealing with over the past couple of weeks has been due to a virus of some sort. The worst would be that she has some sort of auto-immune disorder like Lupus. But since we really don't know yet what's going on, we have to wait.
On the other hand, I'm thoroughly getting thrashed at physical therapy. Truthfully, I'm extremely happy about that. It's not that I'm enjoying PT, but the results are awesome. I'm walking almost normally now, and the wound is getting smaller. One of the things I changed is the dressing strategy I use on the wound. I take a 3"x4" Telfa pad and secure it to my skin with what is known as Medipore tape. It's very effective at preventing maceration and skin irritation, and it is reasonably absorbent.
Hopefully I will find it to be a much more rapid wound closure even than what I've already witnessed. I suspect the wound doc will be pleased; I know I am.
At about 7:30 Saturday night I had to call 911 for Martha. She woke up in the morning (after having spent 3 days as an in-patient) with some shortness of breath. As the day went on it became more pronounced, and by the time I called she was at the point where she was only able to speak in 2-3 word phrases because of the level of distress she was in. With the return trip to the hospital she had more blood work and a chest x-ray which found a pleural effusion at the base of her left lung. So the doc ordered a CT scan of her chest to look for pulmonary emboli and/or pneumonia. Neither of these were present, but the CT revealed an effusion in the right lung as well.
We have no idea what caused these to show up. Since Saturday night, she's been to the doc twice more because of some additional flare-up of symptoms. She's had more blood work done, specifically a CRP and an A&A. Specifically, the doc suspects that there may be some inflammatory or auto-immune cause, but they are not really sure. She also has an appointment for an echocardiogram and a consultation with a pulmonologist over the next week.
I guess there is a great deal of question as to what is going on. The best news would be that all of the problems that she's been dealing with over the past couple of weeks has been due to a virus of some sort. The worst would be that she has some sort of auto-immune disorder like Lupus. But since we really don't know yet what's going on, we have to wait.
On the other hand, I'm thoroughly getting thrashed at physical therapy. Truthfully, I'm extremely happy about that. It's not that I'm enjoying PT, but the results are awesome. I'm walking almost normally now, and the wound is getting smaller. One of the things I changed is the dressing strategy I use on the wound. I take a 3"x4" Telfa pad and secure it to my skin with what is known as Medipore tape. It's very effective at preventing maceration and skin irritation, and it is reasonably absorbent.
Hopefully I will find it to be a much more rapid wound closure even than what I've already witnessed. I suspect the wound doc will be pleased; I know I am.
1 comment:
Oh my !
Praying for you and Martha .........
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