Wednesday, July 29, 2009

And the verdict is...

I have pneumonia, AGAIN. Actually, I shouldn't really say AGAIN with such emphasis because it has been three years since I had pneumonia. However, I have it AGAIN.

I noticed on Thursday and Friday that I wasn't running on all eight cylinders and I attributed it to not sleeping well those nights. When I woke up on Saturday morning, I was very congested, short of breath, and exhausted (after 12 hours of sleep). I decided to take it easy that day - Katey and I went to visit Tony for a few minutes and I rested the remainder of the afternoon before I went to Angela's final birthday celebration. I had already decided that I was just going to dinner and not going out partying with the rest of the group b/c I knew there was no way I was going to make it.

Sunday, more of the same. Monday, the same. I noticed that I was feeling quite like I did when I had pneumonia in the past so after much nagging on my father's behalf, I went ahead and called the nurses and scheduled a tune-up.

When I checked in Tuesday, I must admit things had gone from bad to worse, pretty quickly. I was admitted with a temp of 102.2, O2 levels of 91% @ 3L, and respirations of 34. My nurses quickly got me settled and started the same drugs that I finished up on last time. I had my CXR (chest x-ray) late last night (around 11 PM) and PFTs early this morning. PFTs were definitely not my best event - my highest #'s this time around were 35% / 32%. Yes, these are low, but not out of line, when you take the pneumonia into consideration. Once I start clearing out the pneumonia and I'm not quite so short of breath, I am positive those #'s will return closer to my baseline.

In either case, I'm sitting here today waiting for drug cultures to come back to determine that I'm on the right abx to treat this pneumonia.

The worst part of this? I had to cancel my trip to San Fran and the CFRI Conference with Katey. Fortunately, we are going to get back all of the money that we had spent, but these are definitely one of those moments where I am not enamored with having CF.

On the plus side, I am in the bariatric room on our floor. The room is HUGE (YYYYOOOOOOOOGGGGGEEEE). My only complaint is that the bathroom door weighs about ten times more than any other door on the floor (in other words, don't be in a rush when you've got to go) and the toilet is made for people of the ... hmmmm .... beefier side. It kind of reminds me of a super industrialized over sized toilet that you would see on an airplane.

That's about all the news I have for now. I will try and keep everybody posted as I know more information about the game plan.

Ronnie, glad that you are home!!!