ICU

I finally had my bronchoscope done on Tuesday around 4:30 pm. I talked to the thoracic surgeon right before the procedure and he said the goal was to take as much of the white stuff out as possible and get a good sample to send to get tested. He said the procedure would take approximately 30 minutes.

Two hours into the procedure they finally stopped as they felt that they had gotten as much they could. I was told they got out about 85% of the mucus that was blocking four of my airways. They were not able to get a tissue sample as hoped. Because of the amount of inflammation to my lungs from the procedure and the amount of fluids they had to give me, they sent me to the ICU. Chris was not able to see me until around 11pm and they only allowed visitors (immediate family memebers) every 2 hours for 30 minutes maximum, which was very difficult. They left my breathing tube in (since I was not able to breathe on my own), inserted a catheter into my bladder (which is by far the worst thing I’ve ever had done) and put an IV into an artery on my wrist, which was also awful. They tried four times on my left wrist and six on my right before being successful. Chris took a picture of my wrists after the IV was removed and you can see it below. I was finally transferred from the ICU to E-1 last night around 11pm. Of course due to full capacity of all the units I was put into a double room with a roommate. Chris was not allowed to spend the night and therefore I didn’t get even half an hour of sleep. The good thing is that I’m on the top of the list to get single room either here or in another unit. Because I most likely won’t be in this room very long, I’m not going to bother to give out the room number and phone number as it causes great confusion for the nursing staff as well as the new person that comes into this room.

Since they weren’t able to get a tissue sample from the bronchoscope, now they’re talking about doing a lung biopsy. In addition, they did an echo of my heart and chest x-ray yesterday. The chest x-ray looked worse once again, although it could be attributed to all the inflammation and washing they had to do of my lungs. The echo showed some minor-moderate fluid around my heart and also a slowing rate of pumping of my heart. They’re going to be talking to a cardiologist to see if it’s something that my need further attention. I’ve managed to gain more water weight and I am now 18 lbs heavier than my normal weight. They are giving me low amounts of lasix, but it’s not working at the rate I would like to. Another problem is my vision. Everything seems to be blurry and they’re calling in an ophthalmologist to take a look at my eyes. This all seemed to have happened since I was admitted to the ICU.

In the meantime, my oncologist is very weary about what to do about chemo. She just doesn’t feel safe moving forward not knowing what could potentially be causing all these problems in my lungs. The thoracic surgeon mentioned that it did not look like tumor to him, but of course nothing has come back saying it is or isn’t. Three of my blood cultures from my Hickman have now come back positive and the talk of removing it is now high priority. They are seriously considering removing it within the next few days and eventually replacing it after the infection has cleared. I of course could not be more disappointed since I can’t tolerate any sort of IV and I don’t want to go through two more surgeries.

I have absolutely no appetite and need to force myself to eat. Even chocolate is not appealing to me anymore. I think I’m just growing more frustrated by the day with them not knowing anything, especially as we’re starting to approach over two weeks that I’ve been here and I’m not able to breathe very well without oxygen. Taking a walk outside my room is no longer an option. I’m lucky if I can make it to the restroom or sink.