Details of clinic and PICC line

nice and clean
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Sorry I didn't write yesterday like I said I would. Although I think George was the only one who probably noticed... Anywho, I had clinic on Tuesday and as I said before, it wasn't the best news I could have hoped for, but I wasn't really expecting anything else. I'll go through the whole clinic procedure for those who may not know what a 'clinic' is.

I made it to clinic without passing out in the car, which is always an awesome way to start the day. Got to the clinic and made my way to the scales to weigh myself (the first part of the clinic). I was 72kg - a loss of 2kg; that's in two weeks mind you. Not bad (if I was a tad on the heavy side). However, since my goal is to always gain weight, not the best thing. I haven't really had much of an appetite at all lately. The thought of any food other than cucumber, lettuce (basically water) makes me feel really queezy, so no real surprise that I had lost some weight. Also with infections and stuff, a bit of weight is going ot be lost with your body fighting it. You'll be glad to know that since then however I have got my appetite back a bit...

So lost some weight, as I expected, then I made my way to the seating area. I saw Craig, or Bones as he's called, who is an awesome cf guy who by now must be in his 40's. Great guy and good for a laugh. We discussed how there should be a lounge there for cf's while we wait the hours to see the doctor. Except I don't see it being very easy to grab a spot on since cf's aren't the most considerate people you meet - especially if they are in clinic and are feeling shite.

So I sat there for about 15 mins and then I was called into the lab where they do your lung function. Now the way they measure your lung function is quite simple - but also a bit of hard work, especially if you're having trouble breathing at the start. There's a computer, a big box with a big plastic hose coming out of it, and a mouth piece on the end of that. When ready, you take a big deep breath in, preferrably the biggest you can, then you breath out as hard as you can into the tube. Once the initial force of the breath is out, you have to keep breathing out until there is absolutely nothing left in your lungs. Then there is the obligatory coughing, spluttering, redness in the face, headaches and general crapness. Well, when you're well there isn't so much of that. But with my form lately, I'm genuine in saying that I was lucky not to pass out. There are usually 3 breaths done and the best gets the tick as the one the docs use.

So my results were as follows. 45% for the FEV1 (which is your ability to exhale air in that first second (hence the 1)). 74% for my FVC (full volume capacity). And finally 17% for my MMEF (which is your small airways). The MMEF doesn't really mean alot with cf since your lungs are screwed anyways. The one the docs mostly look at are the FEV1 and the FVC. The lower your FEV1, the more blockage you have, which is why I usually only refer to this one when I'm discussing my lung function (and a big cheers to co-chief Kenny for giving me all the definitions...).

So now that lung functions are done, I go back to the seating area and chat a little to whoever's there, but not a whole lot since I can hardley breathe from the lung function. Finally, maybe half an hour later, it's time to see the doctor. They bring you in their little room, talk about how you've been feeling, which in my case is that I can't breathe and nothing's working, and discuss what options to take from there. So since I've been sick for quite a while, and my lung function has decreased more than 10% in two weeks, it was decided that I better get admitted into hospital for 2 weeks of iv antibiotics.

My PICC line (basically a drip that is designed to last up to 12 months) was scheduled to be put Thursday (today) and so I got dropped off and went to radiology. The procedure for a PICC line is a little bit gruesome, so if you don't wanna know the details go to the next paragraph. You first take off your top, lie on the table with the arm you're getting stuck laying out to the side on a board. The doc then gets the ultrasound machine and searches your arm for a nice juicy vein. Once they find one, they get all steralized, clean your arm up all bacteria-free like, and get ready to start sticking you. The order of the steps vary from doctor to doctor, but this is what they did today (and coincidently the way I prefer it). They start with a local anaesthetic at the point where they are going to put the drip in. If you haven't had a local before, it stings like absolutely buggery, but then leaves you with a nice numb pin cushion. They then get the ultrasound on your arm again to find the vein and get a big needle to make the first hole into the vein. It's cool to watch because you can see the needle entering the vein wall on the ultrasound. Way cool. Once they get the needle in, they thread a tiny metal tube up your arm. You can't really feel it, but if you concentrate hard enough you can feel the pressure of it moving inside your arm. Now a little more local for the scapal, which is used to make the entry hole bigger. After this, they get a really big plastic needle canula thing, about 3 inches long, and push that over the tube, into the entry wound and into the vein. This part always hurts a bit. The pressure is quite tough on the arm, and the feeling of it trying to be squeezed into the small hole in the vein is quite unusual. Think of it as, well, someone trying to shove a big plastic tube deep into your arm. Often this is the part that causes the most blood. Today it was quite excessive... I couldn't actually see it, but I started to feel something very warm drip down my arm for about half a minute or so. And the blood that comes out of a PICC line is very dark red, very thick and literally oozes out. Nice. Once in, the metal tube is removed and they replace that with a plastic tube (which is the PICC line) and thread that up through the vein and all the way to your heart. The big plastic needle canula thing is taken out and you are left with a nice blue tube entering your arm and worming its way to your heart. To make sure it's in the right place, they take a live x-ray to see where it is. Lastly is the dressing which is pretty uneventful...

So there ya go. That's what the last few days have had in store for me. My arm at present isn't feeling too bad - just a very deep, dull pain in the muscle. Kinda like if someone were to punch you very hard in the middle of the muscle. I get admitted into the ward tomorrow sometime, and I'll be there until early next week. If I'm lucky enough, I'll be able to go home next week to do the remainder of my IV's at home. Let's hope that nothing is seriously wrong with me that would want them to keep me in the ward.

Rating: 4.9

What I'm listening to: Sia - Colour the Small One

Update coming your way tomorrow

I wanted to write something tonight, since I had my clinic today, but I'm a bit tired to go through all the details, so I'll do that tomorrow. It's not the BEST news I could have hoped for, but I'll elaborate more tomorrow.

Sleep well.

Hopefully the worst is over

Hi all. Well, since my last post, things haven't really been getting better. I'd love to say they have, but truth be told it's been staying the same, if not getting worse. I haven't worked for the past week. And what's even more annoying, it seems each day there was something else wrong. As I said last time, it started off with a very dry, sore throat. That lead to a couple of days where I wasn't able to cough easily and the mucous sarted building up in my chest.

After seeing the doctor and getting my stash of goodies, I thoguht the worst would be over and I would start to recover. I only worked till 8 on Wednesday night, and only till 7 on Thursday night because I just had absolutely no energy. I was feeling faint and my legs were shaking from walking to the till and back to the staff area. Talk about fitness! It's weird how you can be quite fit and doing heaps of exercise, but then throw in a few days of nothing and it completely disappears and leaves you pathetic. Saturday was the same story. On Sunday I had the full blown fever and temperature, chills and headaches. It wasn't pleasant. Especially since Alley seemed to have finally caught my bug and was feeling miserable with me. Imagine that sight - two sad-sacks feeling sorry for themselves whinging in bed all day. Woot.

I tried to recover as much as I possibly could on Monday and Tuesday so I might be able to work on Wednesday, but along with the fever, I was feeling really nauseous and couldn't really get out of bed. So Wednesday night had to be cancelled. Then yesterday afternoon I had the worst gut aches I've had in years. I was unable to move off the bed for about 2 hours, then it suddenly vanished. Quite strange...

So, I've come to the conclusion that I've had pretty much every symptom that can be related to a virus, so therefore I should be on the mend as of today. I'm set to work at 4, and I'm really hoping that now the only health problem I have is my lungs, and all I need to do is clear them out. That I know how to do... and since I'm not working on Friday, if I can make it through tonight, then another day to recover before Saturday should be all I need. I have another clinic on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes. If things haven't improved that much, it looks like I might need to go in for IV's again, in which case it will be the first time in about 5 years that I've had to have IV's more than once a year. Sign of the times I spose... but we'll take this one step at a time before we get ahead of ourselves.

Only other bit of news is that my friend Ben who moved to Montreal about a year ago is coming back home for his summer holidays for about 3 months. Should be good to see and hang out with him again. Good times. Oh yes, and my phone has stuffed up. I really have a bad relationship with all things electrical...

Rating: 5.0

What I'm listening to: Guster - Keep It Together

Yet ANOTHER post

You must all be getting sick of these. Well, you're probably not. I mean, who could blame you really? I just had to appear modest for the masses... Anywho, so since I was feeling even more poorly today, and when I went to the shops to get some meat for lunch, I ran into Beck (a good cf buddy of mine) and she was in at the moment ('in' meaning having IV's in hospital) and saying that she had what I have (sore throat and stuff). So I thought to not chance it and rang the clinic to try and schedule an earlier appointment. I was able to have one today, so I went there and had all the normal lung function tests and stuff.

As I expected, my lung function was down 10% (form 67% to 57%), which isn't TOO bad, but still bad enough to need some extra drugs (I was 49% when I went in last time just after I got back from my trip). So for the next two weeks I'm on a course of Cipro (oral antibiotic that has some nasty side effects including joint pains, extreme photosensitivity [which is alright since it's now winter and I have no need to be out in the sun], and down right unco-ness), as well as an increased dose of inhaled Tobrimycin (another antibiotic that I have through a nebuliser).

When I was seeing the doctor, they told me that what I had was probably just a viral thing, so nothing to be too worried about. It hadn't spread to my chest yet, which is a good thing, so hopefully the antibiotics will keep that away and get me better in a couple of weeks. If however they seem to do nothing, I'll be back at clinic and most probably will need to go in for IV's again.

I think that's all to report... remember all who can watch Neighbours to do so, just so you can see a great actress who is bound to become a superstar! Now I'm going to go back to watching The Secret KGB UFO Files (who said late night tv viewing was crap?).

Rating: something below a 5

What I'm listening to: The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Live at Slane Castle