Still at the hospital, doing better again, a few hours after sending the previous entry it got bad again, I guess blogging is a hazardous activity.
It started with stronger chest pains again, always on the right side, the doc said my pathways to the lower lobe of the right lung and not reacting, so I had a chest X-ray (yeh, another new test). The pain levels were like 2-3 days prior which was odd since I was doing so well up to this point. I took my first pain med, I didn't take any pain meds since day 2 after surgery, but I took it mainly for the headache and slept a while and woke with worse pain in the chest, the highest all week, this was now about 10 PM and I asked for the attending doc. This nice doc annoyed the nurse greatly and after a long debate agreed to come "when he had time". Nurse Natisha was agitated about this guy so I was already resentful before I met him. He finally came in saying that PE should not cause chest pain, funny because PE is what I have and chest pain is my main symptom this past week. After long debate, he didn't want to have me checked, refused to call the vascular guys, he was very anti, I took 2 Vicodins now for pain and Ativan which is a muscle relaxer and suppose to help me sleep. Pain was slightly tolerable again but still high.
Sensing something is not right Alla called for the Calvary and Inna and Rita (Alla's sisters) came by. The doc wouldn't even speak to Rita, a fellow doctor, he had to be coursed. This was around midnight.
Around 1 the unexpected happen. It started with cramping of the extreme right side of the stomach, which is the area where the lower lobe ends, at first it was annoyance and strange and quickly it became unbearable.
I was barely breathing. Actually was breathing in a pace of more than a breath a second, each very rapid and very very painful. I could no longer control my breathing and couldn't even call for help, lucky I was not alone and Rita called the nurses while Alla on the phone called in a "code blue".
True I was not in a true code blue situation since I was breathing, but it didn't matter, I was in a major distress.
The entire code blue team came by , the room was stuffed with new faces. The pain was horrible but I was fully alert (I wished I wasn't). I recall the staff member on the left side actually disappointed that this was not a code blue and dropping something on the bad, for the 1st 2 minutes, while I am twitching in my bed, they tried to identify who called in the code blue (no one admitted) and tried to get an IV line in (they took it off the day before).
Alla and Inna were not kicked out of the room and stood behind the aprox 10 staff members who were there, I couldn't spot Waldo anywhere.
I was still twitching like crazy and struggling to breath, I forced myself to relax, by not breathing, trying to pause between breaths, it worked a bit and the pain decreased from inferno to just plain hell. They still struggled with the IV, the head code blue nurse entered the IV and went through! the vein, there went that attempt, and I was asking to put the IV in the elbow area, not in the palm. I was given morphine IM – a shot to the hand, the problem with this route is that it takes a while to kick in, but hell was nearing over at this point, now they tried the iv , in the arm below the elbow joint, which finally worked, they took some blood for samples, then more morphine to the vein, which reacts fast, and pain became tolerable once more. This whole episode took about 10-15 minutes, the worse I have ever felt. The issue was not over yet, I still didn't know why it happened, but the morphine was taking more and more affect (thanx god), I had another chest x-ray, in bed this time, they have a mobile device, but they had to put a panel behind my back and that hurt, and another echo cardiogram, also a mobile device, which hurt. After that, blessed sleep took over.
Had another CT in the morning, this time I came prepared, took Zofran to counter the nausea and more morphine since CT requires lying down and that I bad. Even with the morphine it was very painful in the chest but bearable, no nausea.
The good news is that it was not another blood clot(shark), but results of the current one. Because of the clot, lung tissue receives no oxygen or blood and dies(necrosis), and that is painful, I was told this is the exact pain that heart attack feels like, since there too the tissue dies, but my heart is good, no damage there.
I will have a scar in the lung but should not suffer in the future because of it.
Since then pain is decreasing greatly and almost as good as Thursday morning. I have a "coach 2" device, which is a breathing trainer, forcing the lungs to work to get air in to the bad lobe (אונה) , and today its beginning to work again which is great progress.
My INR (מדד קרישה) reached 1.9 yesterday ( I need 2-3) and today it went down L , so my Coumadin dose will increase again today, now it looks like a Tuesday Wednesday discharge, I have been here too long, but we went on a long walk yesterday and over all I am doing much better, and will get off the crutches completely today or tomorrow, so the hip is doing well.
That's it, no other special occurrences since Thursday, don't want any again.
Oh, the light thing, I saw a white light, but it came from the lamps, I was dark in the room before (1 am) so when they opened the lights to full I couldn't fully open my eyes or move my hands to cover them, nothing more…
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