Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Overdue Medical Update

so, it's been a while. i just got back from a doctor's appointment, and i guess there is quite a bit from the past two weeks to recap, healthwise.

a couple weeks ago, i started experiencing this weird feeling in my throat, like something is lodged there and won't go down. so every time i swallowed, it was pretty uncomfortable. it got worse over the past week, so yesterday i underwent a barium swallow study: basically i drink a thick, chalky liquid in various standing and laying positions while they take pictures of my esophagus and upper g.i. area. the results were inconclusive in terms of the swallowing issue, but did show more acid reflux. so today dr. H upped my acid reflux med and ordered a throat CT w/ contrast (tomorrow a.m. -- yippee) to check for inflamed nodes or something of the sort that may be pushing on the esophagus from the outside.

meanwhile, the stomach issues have been coming and going. had some severe pain a few weeks ago, then it went away, then it came back, etc. so we are swapping out two of the g.i. meds (reglan and erythromycin) for domperidone, a med not approved in the US, but used extensively in canada (where dr H used to practice). this means i have to order it from some pharmacy in canada. just one more hassle. but hopefully it will solve the stomach issues.

of paramount importance, of course, are the lungs. i had a bronchoscopy this past friday. no rejection, no growth of fungus or bacteria, no major cleanup necessary. the only hiccup was that the left anastamosis (the one that had the stent for the dehiscence) healed very narrowly. so it took some forceful prodding to get the bronch scope in. the resulting inflammation and all the poking and prodding knocked me off my feet, so to speak, for a few days. but it looks like the airway may have opened up a bit, because my FEV1 (lung function) is up to its highest point, at 49%, a marked increase from testing three weeks ago. but as a result of the narrowing, unless the lung function drastically improves, they may need to put in a sort of balloon to widen the airway in november.

the other open issue has been my energy level, which has been particularly low the past couple weeks. this one seems to be a mystery. all the blood levels have come back normal and we can't seem to pinpoint the cause. i'm discontinuing one heart med that may be contributing to the problem, but otherwise it seems to be a wait-and-see sort of scenario. hoping that fixing the other problems will help fix this one.

that's about it. overall, i'm no tin bad shape. no major setbacks. just a few little ones that are being consistently uncooperative. so hopefully something will break in my favor. and hopefully the CT tomorrow will illuminate this swallowing issue. and with any luck the lung function numbers will start climbing regularly now.

1 comment:

  1. Good to hear from you, was beginning to worry a bit. My stomach still hurts sometimes after I eat, but fewer and farther between. Dr H had mentioned the domperidone to me also, but after the upper and lower GI they said the stomach was emptying properly, and so stopped the Reglan and Eurithro. I'm not sold it is working correctly as of yet. I'm glad to hear your PFTs are up, hopefully opening up the airway will let you get some more capacity. Have you been exercising at all. wondering if that's helping at all.

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