I've been remiss again. I've let too much time go by without updating. I'm so sorry.
It's been a bit of a mixed bag the last few weeks. I've had a few "blue" days. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to my home care nurse that I was a bit blue the day before. She looked alarmed. I then realized she thought I'd had a problem with my oxygen level. I reassured her I did not turn blue, that it was a mood thing. Fun with the home care nurse.
I had quite a few days where my cough was relentless. And in spite of Ken and I draining my right lung cavity pretty regularly, it took very little exertion for me to feel out of breath. I was sure that my left lung cavity must be filling with fluid again. Why else would I have these symptoms? So, we called Dr. K's office and went to Roswell for an x-ray. Both lungs looked pretty good. In fact, the left lung looked better than the right. I was told to treat the symptoms. I took Morphine for the cough. (Who knew Morphine could tame a cough? I sure didn't.) It worked although it made me tired. I made sure to use my inhaler regularly for the shortness of breath. It didn't help so much. I was pretty much stuck at home, not able to do much of anything. I couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be how I lived the rest of my life.
Back to my home care nurse. She's actually very good and very caring. Her name is Jan. Jan came last week and noticed that there was some leakage on the dressing covering my catheter. Even though there didn't appear to be any infection, she thought it would be a good idea to call Roswell and see if they wanted to take a look at it. She didn't call Dr. K. She called the thoracic clinic and asked to speak to the doctor that put in the catheter. She was told they would get a message to Dr. Dexter or Dr. Hennon (he put in the catheter on my left side), and would call if they felt I should come in. The next morning I got a call from Thoracic saying they wanted us to come in. Dr. Hennon took a look at the catheter site and determined there was no infection. But, he wanted to find the cause of the leakage. He suggested we do a drain even though Ken and I had done one just the day before and hadn't gotten too much. During the process of draining, he realized that the catheter was clogged from the inside. He played with the tubing a little bit, and lo and behold, out came about 3 times as much as the day before. Apparently, I had fluid building up that wasn't able to be drained due to the clogged tubing. Since then, our drains have been much more productive. My cough has improved a whole bunch as has the shortness of breath. I haven't had to take the Morphine at all. I feel like my old self again.
I've been on the Votrient for 5 or 6 weeks now. I go in for a regular follow-up tomorrow and I'm sure we'll schedule the next CT scan. Oh boy.
I hope you're all enjoying your summer. Well, I guess technically it's still spring. It sure feels like summer, though. I'm loving the sunshine, the greenery, the flowers, the birds. All, wonderful blessings. Take care and enjoy. Until next time . . .
