Oh These Crappy Lungs

Today ended up better than it started. Before I even got out of bed this morning, I could tell I was already going to be short of breath again today. Great, I was hoping to have a better day. I got up and did my normal morning routine, made it to the chair by the bed and my O2 saturation decides to drop and I start to panic so here we go. I called my mom to "do something", she says "what do you want me to do" I said "call somebody". Okay, nurses and respirtory get in there and get me calmed down and my O2 back up by blasting me with O2 using the face mask instead of the nose prong. Whew, I made it through another one, but it shot my nerves! I was edgy the rest of the day and had to keep a close eye on my O2 so late in the afternoon I decided I wanted something for my nerves and the headache and the pain in my back from being tensed up all day. After waiting a good hour, I finally got the meds and another hour later I was feeling relaxed. My breathing was deeper and I felt better, finally. Just another day with crappy lungs. Gosh I hope this isn't going to be something I have to deal with daily. I've never been one to like taking pills that alter my mind, but in this situation I'll take whatever I can to get me through this ordeal. I'll deal with rehab once I can breathe again, lol!

Taking My Breath Away..........

I have never been a person that couldn't handle stress, but when I can't get my breath it is panic mode for me. This is only the 2nd time it has happened and the doctors and nurses did a great job taking care of me. It started out this afternoon when I just started feeling short of breath and stuffed up feeling. My heart was racing pretty fast and I felt "on edge". My O2 sats was in the mid 80's and they usually run in the upper 80's to low 90's. I didn't say anything at the time just thinking it was the caffeine I had at lunch. After a couple hours and me getting up to walk across the room, I wasn't feeling any better and requested a breathing treatment. Afterward, my phone rang in the room and I was already sob and then I realized I had to pee so I cut the person off on the phone and basically threw the phone down and sprinted to the toilet, only I didn't make it in time and proceeded to start "right" before I sat down. Great! gotta clean that up. Well, then my pulmonary artery decides to spasm and when it spasms it clamps shut, shutting off the O2 to my lungs and I start heaving for air and turning blue. This is when the panic decides to start creeping into the scenario. I pulled the emergency help cord beside the toilet and when the person asked if I needed help all I could manage was "help me". That was all it took for people to come running into the room. There I was, sitting on the toilet turning blue, heaving my chest, and puffing for oxygen and not in a sexy sort of way, lol. They quickly turned up the O2 I was already receiving and I asked for a fan and it arrived. My O2 had fallen into the upper 60's to low 70's, not good. Somewhere in the chaos I managed to let them know to let the person on the phone know I hadn't died and to take a message and hang up the phone. It took about twenty minutes, two breathing treatments, and some calming meditation to get me calmed back down. That was enough excitement for one day. I was tired, had a headache, and just wanted to go to sleep. I survived another one. Whew! That was NOT fun! I can think of a million other ways to get attention in here and that ain't one of them!