Today’s my birthday! I am showered in love. My family and co-workers have lined my windowsill with birthday cards, flowers and candy.
Many things have happened today – First off, my ANA is positive – and the CT scan of those pulmonary arteries didn’t show an embolism but it did show possible interstitial lung disease. I tell the hospital dr that my CT scan from last April showed that too but my primary didn’t repeat the test, only a follow up chest x-ray to see if the pneumonia had cleared – which it had.
SO, today I am what I refer to as an onion, apparently I have layers. More blood tests, consult with heart dr, consult with lung dr. And somehow, again God has intervened and they basically see me at the same time. And they agree that this is predominately a lung issue and not a heart issue. The lung dr states most likely brought on by lupus – and there you have it folks. The dreaded 5 letter word to me. OK, so now what?
Heart dr orders a stress test in the morning just to rule out any possible heart issues. In the meantime, the lung dr states I will need a lung biopsy so I will need to come off of the steroids. They also have to take me off the medication that I take for my migraines because my heart rate dropped into the 40s this morning when I was up in the bathroom. Oh boy! The two medications that seem to help me the most and now I won’t get either of them.
Otherwise, my birthday was about as good as can be expected for being hit with the same possible diagnosis that killed your sister!! But my loving husband, my two daughters and son-in-law have kept my mind somewhat distracted. My son hasn’t been in yet, but this is his usual day with his girlfriend and I’m sure he doesn’t want to see me in the hospital anyways.
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