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thewayneI am not joking.
This is unbelievable. In February, I had carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand. Two weeks after surgery, a Wednesday, I get the stitches taken out. I go back to work full-time (light duty) Thursday. Monday I have pneumonia. 103 degrees. Fast-forward to April. This time it's BEFORE surgery for my left hand and I get pneumonia, it almost delays the surgery but we get clearances and they operate. Fast-forward to three weeks ago Monday. We can't prove it, but the symptoms are close enough to right now that we believe it was pneumonia. And now this week: pneumonia.
For the May incident we have blood work which shows elevated white blood cell count, but because my lungs didn't sound particularly problematic, we decided to not go with chest x-rays since I had already had four sets in three months for eight x-rays.
We run in to a home thermometer calibration issue here, we're not certain how accurate ours are. According to ours, I was running a constant 100.something all week. BP was slightly elevated, pulse ran a constant 125, +/- a couple, every time I checked it, and we're pretty happy with the accuracy of this machine. I kid you not: I lost 15-20 lbs in one week! Yes, the weight loss has stopped. NOT a recommended weight loss plan! ;-)
Wednesday of that week we go to my doctor, he orders up another round of blood work, and we add an instant flu test, a CD4 (a T-Cell count), a sputum culture and a Valley Fever test. Sadly, the VF test takes a month to culture, we're still a week or so out from getting the result on that one. Due to bad timing we just miss the respiratory department at the hospital and have to go back for the sputum and VF tests. Thursday we get the sputum tests done (one sample was enough for both (hopefully!)) after great difficulty: I was having such problems breathing that an 80 year old woman pushed me in a wheel chair from the hospital lobby to the respiratory lab! More than a little embarrassing, but I gladly accepted it.
Because we couldn't get the samples Wednesday, we couldn't start the antibiotic. So after doing the fun stuff at the hospital Thursday, I start the drug, and my temperature spikes to over 104 in the afternoon! We put ice packs on the back of my neck and my forehead/crown and drive it back to 100land in about an hour.
So that's the May incident.
Sunday night, last day of May, I start feeling kinda bad, running a bit of a temperature. Russet takes me to the doctor Monday afternoon, thank goodness they had a cancellation. Lungs don't sound bad, fever, back hurts like hell from lying around, zero energy (another characteristic of May's incident). Doctor orders x-rays and blood. This time we include mono and HIV. I doubt that I have HIV as I'm a frequent blood donor and am faithful to my wife, I think it would have surfaced by now, but we might as well cross it off the list. Yesterday morning we get a call from my doctor: see my lung doctor or go to the ER.
Well, we started seeing a lung doctor before the May incident, in fact, it was the Friday before. He said that I had uncontrolled asthma, put me on a nebulizer and three more steroids. We think that those asthma treatments have changed the characteristic of the pneumonia and we didn't recognize it for what it was when I had it the following week. Monday after seeing him, I'm feeling lousy, and have an appointment for a lung function test. I make the appointment, actually complete the tests, and am told the doctor isn't in. So we see my regular doctor Tuesday (this is back to the May incident), he says see my lung doctor. We call the guy, we're told he's out of the office for two weeks. The bastard, and I use that term enthusiastically, didn't bother mentioning this to us the day before he left. On top of that, of the two other doctors in his practice, no one would see me.
So now we're back to now, or at least yesterday. My doctor says see my lung doctor or go to the ER. We call my lung doctor. He can't see me: he's at the hospital this week. Can we see someone else at his practice, asketh I? No, replies the practice, for that would be a new patient intake and I couldn't see anyone for a month. A three physician specialty practice, and seeing someone else would be a new intake? Well, I'm going to be looking for a new lung doctor today!
We call my doctor back to find out why he wants us to see the lung doctor or go to the ER. The radiology report comes back and reports pneumonia more severe than February. He wants me to get a second opinion. So yesterday afternoon we go to the emergency room and explain what we need. Without too much of a delay we get in to a room where eventually they do blood draws, repeating them from each arm, including a blood culture which we'll know more about in a few days. We get a CT scan, and it definitely confirms pneumonia. So we're actually happy about this: I felt no better or worse physically when we leave, but we got our confirmation.
For the most part, it honestly hasn't been terrible. It does take me out of work for a week, fortunately I've worked hard over the last two years to make my servers largely self-maintaining, though they need looking at to make sure my maintenance scripts are working as written. I have to work part-time the following week to regain strength. So that's all inconvenient. My leave balance is essentially zero because I had to use 40 hours to cover the first week out from my carpal tunnel surgery before Worker's Comp kicked in and paid for the other 3 weeks that I was out (at 2/3rds of my salary, but better than nothing), so I've had over five weeks this year with zero pay. And if you work zero hours, you accrue zero hours of leave (funny how that works). Fortunately we had a very healthy tax refund this year, Russet finally got her withholding set so we didn't pay through the nose every year, we didn't expect that big of a refund but we certainly needed it. But that money is pretty much gone now. And the antibiotics have turned the problem around very fast, and I haven't required hospitalization. We've used three different families of antibiotics for the four incidents (not knowing at the time that #3 was probably pneumonia), so hopefully we're mixing it up enough to avoid getting resistant nasties in me.
Oh, every time it's been left lower lobe. We're not sure if there's a significance to that, but I had heart surgery when I was 18 months old to fix a birth defect and they entered through my left side, so maybe that has something to do with it.
So if you've had a friend or family member who's had recurrent pneumonia before, any info as to the underlying cause would really be appreciated. I know we're no where near exhausting diagnostics at this point, but it could be helpful. Thus far, all of the tests have been negative or not really conclusive. I'm seeing an immunologist this afternoon, we're hoping for some help from him, because undeniably there's something wrong here.
Anyway, just needed to vent a bit. Having pneumonia four times in one year just really sucks. Getting no answers as to the underlying cause sucks even more. I'm considering going back to Phoenix for a couple of weeks to the Mayo clinic and letting them proverbially tear in to me, but I don't think we're quite at that point yet.
Any prayers, good thoughts, voodoo blessings, whatever would be appreciated. :-)
This is unbelievable. In February, I had carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand. Two weeks after surgery, a Wednesday, I get the stitches taken out. I go back to work full-time (light duty) Thursday. Monday I have pneumonia. 103 degrees. Fast-forward to April. This time it's BEFORE surgery for my left hand and I get pneumonia, it almost delays the surgery but we get clearances and they operate. Fast-forward to three weeks ago Monday. We can't prove it, but the symptoms are close enough to right now that we believe it was pneumonia. And now this week: pneumonia.
For the May incident we have blood work which shows elevated white blood cell count, but because my lungs didn't sound particularly problematic, we decided to not go with chest x-rays since I had already had four sets in three months for eight x-rays.
We run in to a home thermometer calibration issue here, we're not certain how accurate ours are. According to ours, I was running a constant 100.something all week. BP was slightly elevated, pulse ran a constant 125, +/- a couple, every time I checked it, and we're pretty happy with the accuracy of this machine. I kid you not: I lost 15-20 lbs in one week! Yes, the weight loss has stopped. NOT a recommended weight loss plan! ;-)
Wednesday of that week we go to my doctor, he orders up another round of blood work, and we add an instant flu test, a CD4 (a T-Cell count), a sputum culture and a Valley Fever test. Sadly, the VF test takes a month to culture, we're still a week or so out from getting the result on that one. Due to bad timing we just miss the respiratory department at the hospital and have to go back for the sputum and VF tests. Thursday we get the sputum tests done (one sample was enough for both (hopefully!)) after great difficulty: I was having such problems breathing that an 80 year old woman pushed me in a wheel chair from the hospital lobby to the respiratory lab! More than a little embarrassing, but I gladly accepted it.
Because we couldn't get the samples Wednesday, we couldn't start the antibiotic. So after doing the fun stuff at the hospital Thursday, I start the drug, and my temperature spikes to over 104 in the afternoon! We put ice packs on the back of my neck and my forehead/crown and drive it back to 100land in about an hour.
So that's the May incident.
Sunday night, last day of May, I start feeling kinda bad, running a bit of a temperature. Russet takes me to the doctor Monday afternoon, thank goodness they had a cancellation. Lungs don't sound bad, fever, back hurts like hell from lying around, zero energy (another characteristic of May's incident). Doctor orders x-rays and blood. This time we include mono and HIV. I doubt that I have HIV as I'm a frequent blood donor and am faithful to my wife, I think it would have surfaced by now, but we might as well cross it off the list. Yesterday morning we get a call from my doctor: see my lung doctor or go to the ER.
Well, we started seeing a lung doctor before the May incident, in fact, it was the Friday before. He said that I had uncontrolled asthma, put me on a nebulizer and three more steroids. We think that those asthma treatments have changed the characteristic of the pneumonia and we didn't recognize it for what it was when I had it the following week. Monday after seeing him, I'm feeling lousy, and have an appointment for a lung function test. I make the appointment, actually complete the tests, and am told the doctor isn't in. So we see my regular doctor Tuesday (this is back to the May incident), he says see my lung doctor. We call the guy, we're told he's out of the office for two weeks. The bastard, and I use that term enthusiastically, didn't bother mentioning this to us the day before he left. On top of that, of the two other doctors in his practice, no one would see me.
So now we're back to now, or at least yesterday. My doctor says see my lung doctor or go to the ER. We call my lung doctor. He can't see me: he's at the hospital this week. Can we see someone else at his practice, asketh I? No, replies the practice, for that would be a new patient intake and I couldn't see anyone for a month. A three physician specialty practice, and seeing someone else would be a new intake? Well, I'm going to be looking for a new lung doctor today!
We call my doctor back to find out why he wants us to see the lung doctor or go to the ER. The radiology report comes back and reports pneumonia more severe than February. He wants me to get a second opinion. So yesterday afternoon we go to the emergency room and explain what we need. Without too much of a delay we get in to a room where eventually they do blood draws, repeating them from each arm, including a blood culture which we'll know more about in a few days. We get a CT scan, and it definitely confirms pneumonia. So we're actually happy about this: I felt no better or worse physically when we leave, but we got our confirmation.
For the most part, it honestly hasn't been terrible. It does take me out of work for a week, fortunately I've worked hard over the last two years to make my servers largely self-maintaining, though they need looking at to make sure my maintenance scripts are working as written. I have to work part-time the following week to regain strength. So that's all inconvenient. My leave balance is essentially zero because I had to use 40 hours to cover the first week out from my carpal tunnel surgery before Worker's Comp kicked in and paid for the other 3 weeks that I was out (at 2/3rds of my salary, but better than nothing), so I've had over five weeks this year with zero pay. And if you work zero hours, you accrue zero hours of leave (funny how that works). Fortunately we had a very healthy tax refund this year, Russet finally got her withholding set so we didn't pay through the nose every year, we didn't expect that big of a refund but we certainly needed it. But that money is pretty much gone now. And the antibiotics have turned the problem around very fast, and I haven't required hospitalization. We've used three different families of antibiotics for the four incidents (not knowing at the time that #3 was probably pneumonia), so hopefully we're mixing it up enough to avoid getting resistant nasties in me.
Oh, every time it's been left lower lobe. We're not sure if there's a significance to that, but I had heart surgery when I was 18 months old to fix a birth defect and they entered through my left side, so maybe that has something to do with it.
So if you've had a friend or family member who's had recurrent pneumonia before, any info as to the underlying cause would really be appreciated. I know we're no where near exhausting diagnostics at this point, but it could be helpful. Thus far, all of the tests have been negative or not really conclusive. I'm seeing an immunologist this afternoon, we're hoping for some help from him, because undeniably there's something wrong here.
Anyway, just needed to vent a bit. Having pneumonia four times in one year just really sucks. Getting no answers as to the underlying cause sucks even more. I'm considering going back to Phoenix for a couple of weeks to the Mayo clinic and letting them proverbially tear in to me, but I don't think we're quite at that point yet.
Any prayers, good thoughts, voodoo blessings, whatever would be appreciated. :-)
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-03 11:08 pm (UTC)All I can tell you is don't let them get away with brushing you off, demand answers, demand tests until they find answers. Doctors like to give you a pat diagnosis and send you out the door... don't let them. It's your body, make them listen to you. (Can you tell that I get frustrated with general practitioners?)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-04 01:57 am (UTC)We think there's something depressing my immune system, making me more susceptible. Saw an immunologist today, he thinks my immune system is fine and that it might be severe allergies that I just don't recognize. We're not too sure about that, but he ordered a whole bunch of immunological tests, and that's what we really wanted out of him. If it confirms that my immune system is actually OK, then all the better, and we'll do allergy treatments.
We are definitely demanding answers, and we fired my lung doctor for that reason. We think this immunologist is an excellent step in the right direction, but it's still going to be slow: we don't see him again until July.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 02:33 am (UTC)Let me know if you'd like some Reiki sent in your direction.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 03:22 am (UTC)We saw the immunologist yesterday, and he ordered a bunch of blood work to see what my immune system is looking like, which is exactly what we wanted. He is also an allergist, and believes that severe allergies could be the underlying cause. We're not quite ready to buy that, but at least he's going in a direction which we think has the best chance of being productive.
We've totally missed my birthday (12/16, I wear a 9 1/2 shoe and usually 38/32 slacks (currently 36W) and really like cargo pockets), but tonight was our 4th anniversary. Fortunately I was well enough for us to have an absolutely excellent dinner at a local winery/bistro, so that was very nice.
And I have absolutely no problem with some Reiki coming my way!
(I would offer a big smooch but I know Apostate is a lot bigger than me) *hug*
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 12:47 pm (UTC)Congratulations on the anniversary and celebration. This year will be our 10th.
I'm a civil drafter/designer, though my current job/contract is teaching me about mechanical design and drafting. That's a whole nother story that I may post to my blog if I can find the time.
Reiki will be on its way sometime later today. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 03:42 pm (UTC)I was amused.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 08:36 pm (UTC)http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525187,00.html
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 09:56 pm (UTC)It's definitely confirmed pneumonia, at least three of the four, and it responds amazingly well and quickly to antibiotics, BUT IT DOESN'T GO AWAY! At least not permanently.
*sigh* Kinda depressing. On top of that, it looks like Russet's mother is reaching end of life, Russ flies to Maine Monday for a week or so. More on that on the DebU board this weekend.