Wookie update. Some more improvement with hiccups. Has progressed to liquid (jello) type diet as ofTuesday. He has some hope of something stronger this evening. All oxygen removed so he's lots more comfortable and getting quite a bit of rest. I think his high point today was finally getting to shower. (Forgive me Wookie if I've given out too much personal info--but I think AAC people want to know that you are on the mend.)

Wow fantastic! Thanks for the update.

Pizza can't be too far off now. But considering the circumstances to his illness maybe pizza is not a good idea.

 

Its been about 10 days,rest has been important right along,like I said before

even happy stuff can effect you,Sarg. get lots of rest....the forum will be here

.......your health first.

 

Thanks for the update 1chance.

Take it easy SgtWookie.

 

where is Sarge...is he up and kickin ?

 

As of yesterday evening, he is still in the same hospital room they put him in following the ICU stay. See my prior posts regarding the room. And yes, he is getting around more each day. I expect him to start posting any day now. He said the keyboard was hard for him to use there.

 

Yep, still in my same room.

I've been really tired lately. After I'd been hicupping for about a week straight, I was just exhausted.

My red blood cell count is low, and I seem to be running around 99 to 101 degree temperature. They give me ibuprofen to bring it down. I have my sister tracking down some chelated iron to help with the low red blood cell count.

I'm finally on pretty much a "full" diet, but it's sodium restricted. The sodium restriction sometimes results in strange combinations of things I can't have - and mushroom soup (which is on the menu) ist verboten. Dang Soup Nazi!!!

Bill Marsden:
My sister keeps trying to leave messages on your phone, but your message box is full. Can you please clear out your messages?

 

and mushroom soup (which is on the menu) ist verboten. Dang Soup Nazi!!!

LOL

Good to hear from you. I hope you'll be doing well soon and join us again.

Cheers

 

Yep, still in my same room.

I've been really tired lately. After I'd been hicupping for about a week straight, I was just exhausted.

My red blood cell count is low, and I seem to be running around 99 to 101 degree temperature. They give me ibuprofen to bring it down. I have my sister tracking down some chelated iron to help with the low red blood cell count.

I'm finally on pretty much a "full" diet, but it's sodium restricted. The sodium restriction sometimes results in strange combinations of things I can't have - and mushroom soup (which is on the menu) ist verboten. Dang Soup Nazi!!

Hi Wookie! It's great to hear from you! I'm glad your hiccups have subsided. I hope you will continue to recover without incident

Best wishes

 

I've found his posts to be not only well thought out (including the Math) but extremely helpful to us AARP generation folks in re-cultivating a useful hobby. What's the point? He and many others here are more concerned about helping others than their own needs.

Maybe I did not phrase that correctly but I know I respect Sgt. Wookie's knowledge and his help, even when he did not know who or how he was helping others.

God speed to a full recovery.

Rod

 

Get well soon SgtWookie!

The sodium restriction sucks, anything that tastes good has plenty of salt in it.

 

Yep, still in my same room.

I've been really tired lately. After I'd been hicupping for about a week straight, I was just exhausted.

My red blood cell count is low, and I seem to be running around 99 to 101 degree temperature. They give me ibuprofen to bring it down. I have my sister tracking down some chelated iron to help with the low red blood cell count.

I'm finally on pretty much a "full" diet, but it's sodium restricted. The sodium restriction sometimes results in strange combinations of things I can't have - and mushroom soup (which is on the menu) ist verboten. Dang Soup Nazi!!!

Bill Marsden:
My sister keeps trying to leave messages on your phone, but your message box is full. Can you please clear out your messages?

Hello SgtWookie,

I hope your hiccups have abated for keeps. They can be very wearing, even without issues with the chest post-operatively.

Reducing salt intake takes time to get used to. My experience is that it has about the same time-constant as the adjustment to using bifocal or vari-focal glasses, with a similar characteristic of apparent impossibility that can in fact be overcome - eventually. Of course, I'm just a feeble civilian: your military experience may help you keep with the program.

The ban on some soup does not surprise me, I'm afraid: you will find that a lot of prepared foods have more sodium than is now recommended for an ordinary healthy diet, let alone sodium-restricted. If you need to keep to such a diet long-term, you'll have to watch out for that, I'm afraid. Always read the label!

I hope you will soon be able to get out of the hospital and get on with recuperating at home. Please keep us posted!

Regards, Adjuster.

 

Well, they did a CT scan on me yesterday after I drank a liter of what they call "contrast" - I guess it makes things show up better.

They found what looked like ~300cc's of fluid around my left lung. So, this morning they used ultrasound to determine the top of my diapragm and the bottom of the fluid pocket, then shot me with some pain med, and used a catheter attached to a vacuum bottle to pull 1L of fluid from the sac around my L lung. I don't know how they could have been off by so much. Anyway, after the fluid was removed, my left lung was making lots of "snap crackle pop" noises as it reinflated. I don't know why I had a liter of fluid in there. I'm glad it's out. What concerns me now is, "will it come back?"

A couple of years ago, my Dad had a collapsed lung. They emptied out the fluid the 1st time, and he seemed OK - but more fluid collected - and it turned into something resembling jelly. They couldn't remove the jelly, so he was on 8L/min oxygen until he died a few weeks later. I really do NOT want to go that way. It really makes one panicky when you can't breathe.

 

I don't know what one is to do on these cases. Do you rely on your doctor to be proficient of his trade and take preventative actions to reassure that your lung will stay inflated, or do you hunt him down and bug him with questions, trying to understand what's going on and become your own doctor essentially.

When I was in and out of hospitals, I had my parents to worry about that, but now, I 'd go for option no.2.

 

I'm really glad they did a contrast ct scan because that's what it takes to find the big C. Hopefully that is ruled out and this was a side effect of having the tube during surgery or spending so much time flat in bed. Try and stay positive--we're all expecting the best for you.

 

Come on Sgt!

Please try not to convince yourself that you are going the same way as your father. If he passed away only a couple of years ago, he must have been a much older man than you are now.

You may do well to ask your doctors what may have caused your effusion: given that you have just had major chest surgery though, we should hope that it stems from that, rather than some more sinister disease.

As to the surprising volume of fluid collected, the problem of integrating an irregular volume trapped between the pleura and the lung (or wherever) can hardly be an easy one. It might be interesting to ask your doctors whether the CT scanner software handles this directly, or if a radiologist has to estimate it by taking measurements from the images.

 

Nothing new to report. They didn't come back with an analysis of the lung sac fluid yet. I did see a chart of my red blood cell count over the time I've been here; it started out high, peaked right after surgery, and then went on a long slow decline. That probably has to do with the fluid leaking into my lung sac, as it looked quite red.

My "mini-fevers" are running lower in temp; about 99.6F instead of over 100.
I have been taking showers regularly for the last 5 days; before that it was more like "sitz-bath"s.
Don't know if they are going to run me through another CT scan or not.
My red blood cell count seems to be coming back up slowly now.

It's pretty much of a pain in the neck to use this "WebTV" thing. The screen is so far away that I have a hard time focusing on the letters. The keyboard goes into caps lock or num lock at unpredictable times, which means I have to do a lot of re-typing - and also explains why I'm not very active on the forum.

Rather than replying to individuals as to how I am, I'll just post in here every day or so. It would simply be too much to try to reply to everyone.

 

If you had access to a better computer, could you use it? Something like a notebook (laptop without a CD or floppy) or a laptop?

 

If I had a notebook or laptoop, I could indeed do a lot more. I have been trying to figure out how I'm going to get web access at the next place I'll be; unless I have a notebook or laptop I probably will be offline for a month.

I won't be able to drive or lift anything over 10 pounds for the next 4 weeks.

One of the big headaches for me here is that I cannot load/run any software or download any files. I usually create simulations/schematics for people to help them understand things. However, with this WebTV, I can't even use Falstad's simulator as it's missing the latest version of Java - and I can't install it. I can't even listen to NPR radio on their website - no Prarie Home Companion for me thiss month.

I have been thinking about looking for a used laoptop after I get out of here, but I really don't have the energy to do so. I am feeling tired all the time, which I'm certain is due to the low red blood cell count.

 

Don't give Wookie a better PC because I'd never be able to keep up with the typing on the GP Parts Directory.

 

Well, heard from the doc earlier - seems that the fluid in the lung sac was simply caused by irritation due to the surgery. People respond differently to the surgery, and also respond differently according to how much fluid accumulates in the lung sac(s).

As far as the lung doc is concerned, I'm good to go. Same with my cardiologist. Now they're just waiting on concurrance from the infectious diseases doc re:temp, and the GI doc.

I suppose I could actually be out of here as early as tomorrow AM, which could cause a problem - my sister had to return to the Bradenton area due to problems with her roommate; it looks like my sister won't have a place to live when she gets back there. Meanwhile, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with everything here, as my sister has all of my stuff at the place she's renting by the day here - which I have never seen, and don't have the address for.

Everything seems simple until it blows up in your face.