No, I don't have Cystic Fibrosis. But! I do get to pretend like I have it and do their airway clearance method with hypertonic saline!
Ok, I'm not necessarily thrilled with adding a 30 minute breathing routine to my day, and I can't exactly say that I'm hopeful at this point. Frankly, I'm not. I feel kind of dejected and hopeless about owning a piece of DURABLE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT. There are reasons I am not on sub-q, and not having medical crap around is one of them. I have to figure out how to maintain sanity while feeling like a "patient" every day.
So we will just focus on the positive aspects of what is going on, leaving my mental health state out of it for the time being. I will sort that out eventually.... BUT! The good news is that this doctor is both aggressive and conservative in very smart ways. We're waiting out the bronchoscopy for another 2 weeks to see if this regimen helps my lungs clear the ball of junk. She thinks it is just mucus at this point, rather than a fungal ball. Also, the extent of the bronchiectasis is limited to the part of my lung where I feel it. That is both disturbing and oddly reassuring. I was hoping that getting rid of the mucus plug would help my lung feel better... but who knows now?
The hypertonic saline is described pretty well by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation here. Maybe it won't be totally unpleasant or will help me unwind. I kind of doubt it, but I have to do it anyway.
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