STAT! - Day 10

Very bad night. Had pain across my back, between my shoulder blades, like someone was stabbing me with a hot dagger and digging it around a bit. Woke up about 4 a.m. soaked with sweat. Debated about whether or not to use the call bell – I hadn’t used it yet and decided just to wait until 6 a.m. when a nurse would arrive for my “vitals” (which they take 4 times per day). At 6 a.m. I had a high fever, low (as in too low) blood pressure, and a racing pulse. I can’t believe the speed of everything that happened next. Just like on T.V. – everything was STAT! Within no time, various members of my medical team had arrived and ordered up a bed-side EKG and bloodwork, after which I was whisked downstairs for a CT scan and booked for a bronchoscopy. The bronch procedure consists of freezing my throat with a local anaesthetic, then a little “happy time” elixir into my IV. Once I’m suitably in la-la land, they put a tube that is about 3 feet long (no, I’m not kidding) with a camera lens on the end down my throat and into my lungs for a look-see.

(This is Adam, not me. And it's Adam's doctor, not mine)

They can examine anything they wish while they’re in there – including looking for holes (!) and checking the connections. Just as long as they don’t find a leftover hose clamp… They can also take a bit of tissue for biopsy. When they brought me back around I can remember the doc standing at the foot of the gurney telling me what she saw. Unfortunately, all I absorbed was the fact that her lips were moving, but had no clue what she said! Took me a long time to recover – supposed to be about 1.5 hours, but easily took me 4 – I quaked from head to toe in bed as though I was in an ice storm. Still feverish – what a crappy day. They’ve changed up my meds again, and are trying to control the fever with Tylenol. The pain between my shoulder blades is determined to be nerve pain, and I’m given a new, non-narcotic pain med for that. The surgery entailed slicing through the nerve bundle when they opened my chest. As nerves regenerate very slowly, I’m told that I may continue to have pain and require this particular med for a year or longer.