is in the hospital - pneumothorax again

June 22, 2005

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are, again, in the

hospital. 's left lung has decided to play the pneumothorax

(collapsed lung) game, now. Apparently it was jealous of the right

one. Thankfully this one is nowhere near as bad as either time the

right lung did it last fall. I took him in to the Urgent Care at

home figuring he'd picked up a virus, or possibly had pneumonia.

(Lower than normal sats, dry cough, pain in left side of back -

upper & lower, low fever last 4 or 5 nights, etc) The doc brought

in his x-ray and showed me the line of the top of his lung. " Oh

Crap! " was the only thing I could say at that point. It's MUCH less

severe than the previous times, though. To the point that they let

me drive him to Gundersen, rather than transporting him by

ambulance. He has no chest tube for the time being, and no IV.

They do, however, have him on 10 liters of oxygen, super blasting

him to try to " blow up his lung like a balloon " .

At this point, I have NO idea whatsoever where this leaves us

regarding his heart procedure next week. Or if we'll be seeing the

ped pulmonologist at Fairview sooner than Wednesday or Thursday of

next week. They may want to do the pleurodesis surgery on his left

lung even if it doesn't get worse and stick IT to his chest wall

like the right one is, just because of how bad his lungs are.

His one doc here showed me his CT scan. They're not good. There

are so many air pockets in his lungs, the doctor said is

a " walking pneumothorax waiting to happen " . His left lung is the

worst. He said really has no good lung tissue on that side to

speak of. And the right side is better, but not by a huge lot.

So, anyway, we're at Gundersen Lutheran again, same as before.

Phone & room number are below. I don't really know anything for

right now except that aside from being crabby, he's doing okay. I'm

doing okay. And I, surprisingly, haven't started smoking again. 20

days today (Thursday).

Love you all. Will check in, and will post again when I know

anything more.

Ami

1-

Rm 4113

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