Out of touch

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone, I've been out of touch for a few days, just wanted you to know

why I haven't been responding to your calls and emails. I am back and will

hopefully stay out of the hospital for the near and distant future. I went to

my ENT for bronchitis, sore throat, infected sinuses and a cough. He ordered me

to use a nebulizer, which caused some severe side effects. I began to tremble (

understand this is normal to have some), but the longer I waited for it to go

away, the longer it lasted and then my heart started to race and beat

irregularly. The ENT also said he heard a crackling in my lung, which could mean

pneumonia. The pains in my chest and arms caused me to call the doctor after I

had left his office, and after phone calls back and forth was told to go to the

hospital. I was in the emergency room for hours and it was decided to keep me

there because of overcrowding in the hospital. About 3:00 a.m., they took me

and my bed and brought me to the heart ward because ER was overrun with

patients. I thought I would be going home, but it wasn't to be. I actually

spent my birthday in the hospital. They wanted to rule out my having another

heart attack, so I was held over for pictures of my heart before and after the

perfusion test. I told them I almost gave up my cookies on that one.

Everything was negative for a heart attack, but I will have to follow up

with the heart clinic next week. I don't know if anyone of you ever had an

experience like that from a nebulizer. Jimmy uses one 3 times a day, but there

is no way I could even consider doing that again. My pulse jumped up 20 points

and I was so shaky I could barely hold a pen in my hand to sign myself in.

Everywhere I went, they could see the date and realized it was my birthday, so I

was deluged with greetings. Even one of the doctors upon entering the door

flashed a big smile and wished me a happy birthday. I wasn't exactly smiling,

but was relived that they could find no evidence of a heart attack. The only

thing left to do is an angiogram and the cardiologist will decide if evidence

warrants it next week. All of the doctors advised me to continue digging and

doing research on CML, because as they said, " You know more than we do and we

rely on you, the patient, to educate us. "

I didn't even tell my children I was in the hospital. They were frantic

looking for me, but I didn't think I would be in for 3 days, I thought I would

be released after a few hours. You don't want to spend a lot of time in ER.

You don't know when and what you will get to eat. They don't keep food there

and the cafeteria had long closed. It had been 11 hours since I had eaten when

I began to complain about being hungry. I had a choice of a pizza or a

sandwich. One of our sons is throwing an " 80 " party for me Sunday. Wish you

could all come and enjoy a real Cajun party.

Blessings,

Lottie