Thursday, October 4, 2007

Lovin the pulmonologist

My oncologist pulled some strings and got me in to see the pulomonlogist at Hopkins yesterday. This doc is wonderful and answered all my questions. In a nutshell he thinks the radiation pneumonitis is back but first needs to do another broncoscopy to rule out any possibility of infection. He does not think it is a cancer recurrence so that is great news.

He scheduled my broncoscopy for tomorrow morning and will call with the results that evening. Assuming he is correct and I don't have an infection he will put be back on steroids for about 2-3 months. They even set up general anesthesia since we all know my track record with "twilight" drugs.

There are a lot of "if then" scenarios he went over but I will spare everyone all the details. I just pray he is correct and that the steroids resolve everything. He said not to push myself physically and call him immediately if things worsen. He sounded like he was riding the fence on just admitting me to the hospital since my O2 and breathing is so bad. At this point I would agree with the docs about just going to the hospital to get everything resolved but I know my kids cannot handle another hospital stay. Especially with Dave out of town - they would freak out.

So with Michele's help we are holding down the fort. She is getting the kids off to school/daycare and picking them up. Mom is carting me back and forth to Hopkins. I feel like it is winter all over again.

When will this end?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HI HEATHER,

I AM CERTAINLY LEARNING LOTS OF NEW WORDS FROM YOU...EG. PULMONOLOGIST.

YOU HAVE BEEN SO UNBELIEVABLY BRAVE AND PATIENT I GUESS YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO ENDURE ALL THIS A LITTLE LONGER!? I'M SURE IT WILL "END" ONE OF THESE DAYS & YOU WILL LOOK BACK ON THIS DIFFICULT TIME!HOPE THERE WON'T BE TOO MANY OBSTACLES IN YOUR WAY FROM NOW ON!

LOVE FROM YOUR ENGLISH FAMILY,THE MAIERS