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Hi all,

I'm Sharon, 33yr old mother of 3 from Australia. I'm currently 13mths away from graduating university as a registered nurse and three days ago I was told I have fibrosis & areas of collaspe.

My story starts May 07, with my first episode of crackles, shortness of breath. The hospital put it down to an acute asthma attack (first ever) and treated me with nebs & after a few hours I went home ok. As the months progressed I had the occasional repeat episode which only came on after a specific exercise. Fast forward to the end of 07 and I was now waking at night with these episodes and they were lasting up to 12hours. In December 07 I had a CTPA (ct scan with contrast dye to check for pulmonary embolisms) they concuded the ground glass appearance at the bases was due to broncho pneumonia & treated for such.

Since then I have had more and more episodes and gradual worsening. After a wisdom tooth extraction on friday I had another, what I called "Mild" episode but at least my local doctor was open so I went to him (most other attacks were at night or when he was shut) so he could see for himself what was happening. He sent me straight to the hospital, who after keeping me for several hours sent me home with instructions for my local doctor to refer me to a lung specialist & arrange a high resolution CT. After I left the local doctor my dad was next to see him about his own health issue, the doctor said to my dad that he thought it was just an anxiety attack from the tooth extraction.

My high res CT stated I have bilateral pulmonary effusions, areas of collaspe in the middle lobe & lingular, septal thickening in the middle lobe & ground glass or air trapping in the bases. To which my local doctor said "YOU HAVE FIBROSIS & AREAS OF COLLASPE" and then wrote me a referral to a lung specialist. We've had a few public holidays here so I'm waiting until Tuesday next week to chase up the appointment but I left my local doctor with no guidence, medication or instructions aside from "JUST WAIT" till I get the appointment.

I have never smoked but both my parents smoked heavily all my life, my mother has passed away so I moved in with dad 2yrs ago to help him and moved back into the smoke environment. I'm numb, trying not to freak out and if I didn't have false nails I would have bitten my nails down to the knuckle.

I know there are various types of fibrosis and considering I have had radiation treatment (radioactive iodine 15yrs ago) for thyroid disease that puts me at a high "risk" category for some types. But I'm still hoping that my local doctor has made an grasping at sraws diagnosis, and know that I will know more when I see the specialist.

Just wanted to blurt my "story" out and say hi.

take care

Sharon.

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