Pleurisy

Seriously.

I have to laugh.  In my world, "What's next?" is a loaded question because there is no telling what will be next.

Today's what's next is pleurisy.

I was okay yesterday morning. Kinda felt like my asthma was flaring up so I had started using my inhaler.  No big deal.

Only it didn't help, and that was odd.

As the day went on, I felt worse.  By 4, I had decided that after work, we were going home, having an easy dinner, and going to bed asap.

By midnight, I was still awake thinking I might need to go to the ER if things got worse.  I couldn't breathe.  Well, I could, but it hurt like hell to inhale.  Just on my right side, though.  If only I could breathe using only my left lung....

I got to work this morning and checked the schedule.  Crap.  My doctor was booked solid.  I told the receptionist if there were any cancellations or no-shows, to let me know because I thought I really needed seen.  Our 9:30 patient didn't show up, and I took that slot asap -- one of the perks of working where I do!!

And then they weighed me.  We'll just say I'm down yet another major chunk of weight and leave it at that.  If I could bottle this up -- whatever it is -- and sell it, I would make millions!  Then I could use those millions to buy another new wardrobe since everything I own is hanging off me... again.

I had no wheezing; it wasn't my asthma.  That would explain why the inhaler wasn't helping.  She told me it was indeed pleurisy, and that it was caused by the trauma of the biopsy.  That's not a diagnosis I hear often, so I wasn't sure exactly what it was.  She told me I basically have inflammation around my right lung and chest wall.  Greeeaaat. 

She told me to come with her, and she took me to get an xray.  That was odd.  As many xrays as I have had done in that place, she has never escorted me.  Then she went in and did some whispering with the radiologist tech.  Odd, but I just figured she was warning her that I had a hematoma, so that when it showed up on the scan, they didn't freak out by this mass of blood there.

Did the xray.  In and out.  My doctor came in a couple minutes later and said she had looked it over herself and didn't see anything too bad, but that we'd wait to see what the report said.  She's never actually read any of my xrays herself before.  Odd.

When the report came back saying the same thing she said she saw, she then told me she was looking for something like a collapsed lung because it is a possible complication resulting from pleurisy, and if it was going to happen to anyone it would be me.  With my track record of odd things popping up, this is true.

I keep things interesting.

So now I am on a whole slew of medications and have to be a good little patient and take it easy.  Or even easier, I guess.  We'll see.  That's hard for me!

I am so very thankful I have a doctor here who listens to me, who knows I actually pay attention to my body.  One who sincerely worries over me.  One who is determined to get an answer, instead of taking the wait-and-see approach that the others are so fond of using.

The bright side of this day, I haven't cried yet.  I say yet because there's still time and at night after my baby girl goes to bed is the hardest for me. 

This weekend, we're gonna have some fun!  You know, between the taking it easy stuff.