The 6th & 7th; I love furthering the education of baby doctors.
The 6th of March. Good news: my lung has re-inflated and the chest drain is out. Bad news: my breathing is still very poor. I had about eight doctors round my bed this morning (Ben Sutton from respiratory, Sridhar Chaganti from haematology, and all their minions) to discuss what might be wrong with me and what we should do about it. My input was that a) if I'm going to need IVs for much longer, I'm going to need a PICC putting in, and b) I will not have systemic steroids because they make me suicidal. Thankfully, Ben knows Bryony because she is an asthma patient of his, so he was going to talk to her about a line, which made that easy enough. The steroids were to do with treating whatever is causing the inflammation, but I absolutely refuse to have them, especially at the doses he was talking about. Swabs won't really help in diagnosing the problem apparently, so I'm going to have a bronchoalveolar lavage, which is when an bronchoschope is put down the airway, into the lungs, they squirt a bit of fluid in and then collect it to examine. I will be sedated for that. Ben said he has a list tomorrow and someone else has one on Wednesday but it hasn't been mentioned again since this morning so I'm not sure when that will be.
I had a really bad night, so when Mommy arrived with coffee, I was very grateful - such a sleepy bear. We had our lunches, then we had another lovely afternoon with a visitor because Philippa from the liver team came to see me, so she was here for a couple of hours, keeping us amused. However, when it came to be time for chest drain removal, she took her leave.
That part was far less dramatic than its insertion. I had to do some deep breathing, and on an exhale, the doctor just pulled it out, then put a lot of pressure on to stop air getting back in and to help seal the gap. So far, it seems to be staying up. I have the most ridiculously enormous dressing, but at least tonight I can sleep on my side, the way I am actually comfortable, instead of on my back like a flipped over tortoise. If I get a PICC tomorrow, I will be back to full arm function!
I'm down to one litre of oxygen tonight, and I don't feel good, but I don't feel as bad as I did. Back to one day at a time.
The 7th of March.
Today has been one of conversations and making plans. No PICC or lavage but I'll explain about that later.
I had a very boring morning, and was about to bunker down for a nap (now I can lie on my side it is so much easier to sleep) when Ben poked his head in and asked if it was alright if he brought his medical students in, to which I replied absolutely yes I love furthering the education of baby doctors. A troupe of seven students came in and lined up along the back wall, facing me, and Ben had them try to work out what was wrong with me. Not the whole story, that would be impossible, but the answer they needed to get to was the pneumothorax. They could ask me loads of questions, and I did have to give them some background information so they weren't completely baffled by some of my answers. Ben also asked them general medical questions that were not entirely related to me which probably did not help them on the right path. At the end, one of them had to examine me, at which point she found the dressing from the drain, and then they guessed pneumothorax! Then Ben got me to show them my liver scar except he was expecting me to have a Mercedes when I actually have a hockey stick but hey, they still learned something.
This afternoon's visitor was Bryony! She had seen my name on the referrals list and was like MINE THIS ONE IS MINE because I am too complicated. Basically, I can't have a PICC because they go into one of my veins that is already trashed from lines, so she's liaising with Andrew and Ben, because if they put in the kind of line she is thinking of, there are certain drugs I won't be able to have because they won't be within the pH range that will work. I may or may not be having the lavage, depending on my oxygen requirement, but at the moment it isn't improving.
I had a shower this afternoon, or rather, I sat on the shower chair with the oxygen on and Mommy essentially hosed me down with the shower and I scrubbed myself with a loofah. It was a very dignified exercise. It is nice to feel clean.
As it is now gone eight o'clock and Bryony hasn't come back to me with a plan yet, I expect to hear from her in the morning. Unless the nurse tonight has some information that I don't know about. Either way, I may have to delay my breakfast until I know what's happening.
