Lung/Cough Update

A couple of days ago I asked for specific prayer requests around my lung health. I aspirated on drink last week and it has been sounding junky for several days. Not only would any pneumonia derail/delay my final chemo for this leg of things, but it is a quite serious complication, and I also go to Charleston for a lung function test on Tuesday. 

To update: 

I ended up calling my oncologist on call and was told the preferred course of action was for me to go to an Urgent care/ER to get a chest x-ray and let a doctor listen to my chest to determine what was going on.  I was super nervous about doing that in my current lower immune status and with the long wait times that everyone has been talking about. There are so many nasty bugs going around this winter. Anyway, I also wanted to be a good and responsible patient, so I opted to head to Chapin Urgent care. They actually have a closing time, and I took a chance that they would be less busy that somewhere closer or an ER. 

No one else was in the waiting room, everyone was very nice, and I was in and out with my assessment/x-ray and prescriptions in less than an hour. Praises!!!

 The final verdict is that everything sounds and looks clear right now. No pneumonia. Instead, he thinks it is pneumonitis, which is an inflammation of the lung/airway tissue. It produces swelling and mucus of the airway, (hence the junky sounding cough.)  He gave me an antibiotic as a precaution and also called in a cough syrup with Phenergan. I couldn't get the cough syrup filled as the pharmacy tech said all of the stores in the surrounding area are currently out of the cough syrup. They said actually they are out of several types of prescription cough syrup. Gives a bit of insight into the current state of things this winter, I think. Yikes! 

Thank you so much for all your prayers on this. It was calming to know I alerted all of my people and I could rest and focus on just healing and you all had me lifted up.  Make no mistake...I know sometimes helping/coming around someone can feel like just one more thing, a task...but from someone on the receiving end, coming alongside someone in crisis truly matters.  It has helped me frame this experience differently. Being sick tried to make me feel forsaken, alone, and forgotten by the mainstream. I remember in the earliest days being so dumbfounded that the world and everyone on it just carried on while my world just halted to a stop. I remember feeling that in the first days after my mother passed too. I am sure there are some moments in your own lives that have felt similar maybe? 

Anyway, all of the support, messages, sweet little gifts, cards, even just periodically checking here and commenting makes me feel like I am not alone in this journey and that has been HUGE.

Thank you! 

Continued prayers for continued healing of my lungs to restore them to the best possible state ahead of my appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday (12/21) I will make another post soon about the next steps after Chemo/Radiation.