asthma update

It is 10:00 a.m. and I still don't know if I am going home today or not. The nurse doesn't think so. I am feeling a little better. More like I feel when I am at home when I have the problems with my asthma. The nurse thought I might have bronchitis and still need IV antibiotics.

It is 12:40 - still no sign of the doctor telling me if I leaving the hospital or staying another night. I think I feel better. But if they want me to stay another night and I am to get more IV drugs, I need to get a PIC line. The IVs keep collapsing.

Hopefully he will show up soon.

1:15 p.m. - Dr. Lawrence, a wonderful doctor, showed up. He reviewed my labs and stuff. My O2 sats are still not where he wants them. My white blood count skyrocketed to 22,000 (I think that is what he said). A review of normal WBC tell me that it should be in the 4,000 to 10,000 range. This can be caused by the steroids that I have been getting. He said my lungs are clear, but I am still short of breath and weak when moving around. So he wants to do a chest CT with contrast to rule out a pulmonary embolus and/or pulmonary fibrosis (although this is hard to detect, but can sometimes be seen). To be able to do the contrast CT he has to give me more steroids and IV benadryl, because I have had reactions to IV contrast before. Also, my veins are not handling the IV ports, so they will put in a PIC line for easier access. Since I will have the PIC line, then he will give me more IV antibiotics. Otherwise, I could have started taking the antibiotics by mouth. Other stupid thing my body does when taking steroids is I get thrush (yeast infection in the mouth). So medicine for that. If I feel better tomorrow and the CT scan is good, I might be able to go home. But I will be seeing another doctor, Dr. Shelton, who I am told looks like Tom Cruise.

It is worrisome for me about the shortness of breath and stuff because my mother was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis when she was about 58 years old and she died from complications of the disease at age 64. I do not want to follow in my mother's footsteps. I know that I am a little healthier than she was. She was a smoker for a very long time. I just lived with my smoker parents and was exposed to secondhand smoking during my early development years.

Now with years and years of asthma symptoms, bronchitis, pneumonia and just a general decrease in lung capacity ever since the birth of my third child in 1979, it is hard to stop thinking about my mom's problem.

So I have the PICC line and will be getting the CT chest with contrast and will update everyone later.