Everyone experiences a little indigestion and bloating from time to time. Did you know that it’s very common for people with chronic lung disease to experience frequent abdominal bloating? What’s not so normal however, is to actually become so distended that it impairs your ability to breath effectively, but that’s what was happening to me. [...]
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It’s generally been a rough couple of months on the asthma front. This disease has been kicking my butt. Seems like Ive been sick more often than not. A couple weeks ago I started flaring again pretty severely, and as a result, had to up my prednisone to 50mg for a few days. The prednisone [...]
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As I mentioned in a Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea” (“PND”) , also known as , believe it or not…Cardiac Asthma. Wouldn’t that be just swell if I had Cardiac asthma on top of Bronchial asthma? So anyways, tonight they’re doing a Transthoracic Echocardiogram to check my heart valves and to see if my pulmonary hypertension is [...]
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Can you believe I’ve had 118 arterial blood gases radial artery. If that were the case , my wrist would have fallen off by now. Some of those samples actually came from arterial catheters that were placed in my artery during different hospitalizations. I estimate that about 50 of the 118 ABG samples sent to [...]
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Monday, Visit with Dyspnea specialist Dr.Susan Jansen She spent a generous amount of time with me (almost 2 hours) and I actually learned quite a bit. I was impressed by her knowledge of pulmonary mechanics and the neuro-mechanisms of dyspnea . Because she knew I was an RT by trade, she was able to speak [...]
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Does my new nose wire make a fashion statement? Or does it clash with my beautiful blue eyes ? Actually, I was really bummed about having to deal with this thing in my nose and stomach for the next 24 hours. It’s irritating as hell. But then I got to hold Winston… Pets are amazing [...]
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Had my bi monthly follow up visit at the UCSF Chest Clinic on Wednesday. This is the latest plan: Asthma Care Plan –We tweaked my current asthma action plan whereby I won’t come into the hospital for treatment unless my peak flows drops below 250 and remains there for more than 24hours. The way it [...]
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As promised, here are two of the lesser gross pictures of yesterdays bone graft surgery. You can see how swollen the gum is around the implant .After scraping out the area, he filled it with synthetic bone and tightened it all up with 12 sutures. As soon as the local anesthetic wore off , it [...]
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As part of the” BORG scale) Well , having just been discharged from the hospital 5 days prior to this research visit and being all jacked up on the roids , I thought it might be fun to racewalk the test… so that’s exactly what I did ….. and I caught a small snipit on [...]
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There was a scheduling conflict with my 14 mile LSD, and a follow-up visit I have at the stroke center at UCSF medical center this Wednesday. Since I pride myself on my time management skills, I thought the following remedy would be appropriate……………Incorporate the two! I’ve chosen a scenic 14 mile long slow walk which [...]
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I’m Normal ………Since when? My beta receptor genotype finally came back from Boston. The results: Heterozygous ( Gly/Arg) , a normal genotype. Hello! Did they say Hetero ?? Anyway , all this genetic googly gob simply means that I should have a “normal” response to beta agonist medications. In other words… Albuterol is reacting on [...]
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It’s been an emotional roller coaster ride , Thank goodness for some compassionate friends and a walking habit that I can escape into. Wednesday , I have a full 8 hour day of medical appointments including some new allergy testing , some more pulmonary function tests, A nitric oxide test ( that’s a new one [...]
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well, this is a personal diary . This week I have a bunch of medical procedures that have to be done including, my very first colo-rectal screening. That’s right, a colonoscopy. I’ve been putting it off for the past 2 years for the usual reasons. Geeez ..what a pain in the ass! (OK– Please keep [...]
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