Medical Mystery Tour

Again my blogging, like other things is falling by the wayside but with all the appointments and tests and doctor’s visits etc. I’m usually too exhausted to do anything where I need to think! My sleeping habits are all over the place still, and the health issues STILL unresolved.  Welcome to my Medical Mystery Tour!

After the lung function test, I saw the respiratory specialist. He pointed out that the emphysema is really quite mild (good) and that nodule isn’t anything to worry too much over just now but should be monitored. He noted on the scans that there was some slightly weird shading and couldn’t work out what it was – possibility that it was the end of an infection and something to look into later. After discussing symptoms and everything else he wondered if I might have Pulmonary Hypertension, Sleep Apnoea, a problem with my heart or Chronic Bronchitis. He decided more tests were needed to get a closer look at things!

He turns his attention to the relationship between my heart and lungs and decides he wants a closer look at my heart as well to try and rule out or diagnose something. So I had to have a high resolution CT of the chest, a pulmonary angiogram (which requires the use of a vein for the contrast – and we all know the story of my wonderfully co-operative veins), and an echocardiogram. I decided that I wanted to rule out other things too so got a pap smear and today I had a mammogram (I just don’t want other things lurking about unnoticed).

Off I head for the first two tests to be done at the same place and same time. The high resolution CT scan was to be done with me on my back and on my front to see if anything was affected by gravity. But first they wanted to catch my vein ready for the contrast. It wasn’t going to play ball – veins out on strike! I told her “look just put it in my hand, I know it will hurt but I need this done!” She said she’d rather not and got the senior radiology doctor in to try my other arm, no luck for him either. I guess you can’t get blood out of a stone, that’s how I felt. They decided to do the high res scan and then get me back in a few days later for the other one and try the veins again. They DID succeed the second time, but it took copious amounts of water to drink to really hydrate me and a heated wheat pack on my arm.

A visit to the doctor showed that the pap smear was normal (I’ve had two previous bad results that required further action, nice to rule this out). All tests done, so Monday I was back at the specialist to find out where things stood. He ruled everything out that he was looking for. But as is the way with every test I’ve had so far….he found something NEW!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Stop it!!!!

They have discovered a second “thing” or nodule, this time in my right lung and right underneath my heart. Ideally he would do a needle biopsy on that BUT (isn’t there always a but) because of its position, it’s right among all the veins or arteries or whatever they are called that supply the blood to the lungs from the heart and it’s TOO RISKY!

Wonderful!! Just absolutely great! NOT!

So, I have two options, they can do a bronchoscopy and get a tube down there and do what they do, maybe look at it and take a biopsy OR I could have a PET scan. As the PET scan was the cheaper option on the day, I chose that! I’m yet to have it. Tomorrow I see my GP and will discuss it with him, this specialist, once he was getting closer to needing procedures done to me, was meant to get me into the public health system but he’s not doing that, so I feel that I need some advice on what to do next.

The worrying thing with the PET scan though is my veins, now I could apply the same strategy as I did for the successful angiogram but here is the problem. I have to travel just over an hour to get to the place that does this, by train. How am I to keep my veins warm over such a period of time? Stuart suggested we take a thermos with boiling water and a hot water bottle, yes that would work but we need to carry my cumbersome collection of scans too and the other various things to make the trip more comfortable.

I’m just at a stage where I’m totally fed up with all these tests, I’m losing faith in this specialist who is supposed to be very reputable. Yeah he charges like a wounded bull! He’s starting to scratch his head now, I asked him “what could this other nodule be?” his answer was, “it may just be an enlarged lymph node or something else”. Ah…something else, now there’s a medical term you don’t hear too often! It’s a really irresponsible thing to say though isn’t it? Does he think he’s protecting me from potentially bad news? Does he not think that by saying “something else” our minds are not going to start worrying about the worst possible scenario?

Anyway, all this is wearing me down, so my blogging and online time will be intermittent until we start getting somewhere and I gain some energy back.  Please keep positive thoughts coming my way, I can do with all the help I can get right now!

So, sit back and enjoy The Beatles version of Medical Mystery Tour….even the words almost fit with the new name I’ve given it!

Tags: Health Issues, heart, lungs