Just when things were heading in the
right direction…
On Monday I finally started getting some
of my energy back. Prior to that I had been so utterly wiped out that I often
napped twice a day, and even with that I still felt completely drained. But on
Monday and Tuesday I actually woke up a bit and began to feel like a
semi-functional human being again. I was hopeful that things were turning the
corner and that I was pulling out of the CF exacerbation.
And then the other shoe dropped.
All month I’ve been having mild issues
with coughing up blood. I had a couple days of blood streaked mucus, then a
small bleed of 5 mL… a couple more days of streaking, then another small bleed
of 10 mL. I was a little concerned that maybe I was ramping up to something
bigger, but I was NOT expecting to be hit with an early morning massive bleed out
of nowhere. It was close to what happened back in February, and I almost filled
a specimen cup with 80 mL of my own blood within the span of 5-10 minutes.
Fortunately, though I knew it was bad, I could feel that this one was a little
more under control. I was pretty sure that it would stop fairly quickly – and I
was right. But I also knew that it was bad enough that it was time for another
trip to the ER. So Katherine got to wake up to a really fun 5 am phone call and
take me to HUP. Don’t I take her on the BEST dates??
Based on February’s drama, I knew they
were going to admit me, so this time I came prepared with a suitcase and
supplies. Fortunately, a CT scan did not show any active bleeding, though it
did show a small amount of pneumonia. Presumably the infection wore away at a
blood vessel in my lungs, but B”H it seems to have sealed itself right up, so
hopefully I won’t have any further drama. Just like last time, we’re yanking a
bunch of my daily treatments that could irritate my airways and cause further
bleeding, and will monitor how I do as we slowly add them back in over the next
few days. We’re also continuing the IV antibiotics that I had already started
to address the pneumonia as well as reduce the risk of additional infection.
Unfortunately, HUP is pretty busy, and
they aren’t sure they’ll be able to get me into a bed upstairs until tomorrow.
Which means spending the night in an ER stretcher. At least I was lucky enough
to get a cubicle; they’re so busy today that some people are on stretchers in
the hallway. I will be very glad to finally get upstairs and settle in,
hopefully soon!
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