More Hospital Fun

I have been very blessed these last many months that I have been free and clear from any lung infections. It has been about six months since my last bout with pneumonia. This is one of the longest (perhaps it is the longest) time I have ever gone without having a respiratory infection since I got my tracheotomy in May 2017.

I am at a local hospital, which is unusual. I often travel nearly 400 miles to the medical facility where my beloved pulmonologist works. However, since she dropped me as a patient in March, I have been trying to stay well and not visit doctors.

When I was in the hospital in July for a blood clot in my lungs, a primary care physician took my case. She followed up with me in clinic. She gave me four referrals to local doctors, one of which was a pulmonologist. I cancelled my first appointment with the pulmonologist. The second appointment he cancelled. The third appointment I was able to do a telemedicine appointment. The doctor knew about tracheostomies and ventilators. Since I was not feeling well, he wanted to culture the sputum from my lungs. He said I would probably go on IV antibiotics.

At my next appointment, I had a telemedicine with a nurse practitioner (NP). She was clueless about the bacteria growing in my lungs. She gave me oral antibiotics which were not effective against the bacteria. Since I sounded sick at the appointment, she told me to come into the office for my next appointment. A week passed.

At the in-person appointment, I was very short of breath and was coughing. My medical case was now down-graded even more to just a nurse. She said the chest x-ray I had done a few days prior was clear. That was good news. I did not have pneumonia. I tried unsuccessfully to explain my chest x-rays are 80-90% normal when I have pneumonia. The only way the pneumonia shows up is via CT scan. The nurse could not understand what I was saying. My chest x-ray was clear. I did not have pneumonia. End of story.

As the nurse talked to me, she finally looked at me. She suddenly noticed I was short of breath and really struggling to breathe. She immediately sprang up and listened to my lungs. She ran out the door and summoned the NP. The NP (who I saw via telemedicine the week before) was concerned I was sicker than I was the previous week. She immediately said I needed to go to the ER to get IV antibiotics. She called over to the hospital to tell them I was coming.

I was not in favor of going to the hospital. My chest x-ray was clear. I was not breathing well and was coughing, but I knew my white blood cell count would not be elevated. (I have been sick so much, I can tell you what my white blood cell count is fairly accurately by the way I feel.) If I went to the ER, I might be sent home. It would be another blemish on my chart of going to the ER and not being sick. My mom talks me into going to the ER.

For the link to Part Two, click here