I realized that if I didn't hurry up, I'd still be blogging my last hospital stay for a year! So, I'm going to try to do the rest of the stay in five paragraphs or less. Away we go!
Day three was Sunday. I saw Dr. Lungs early. We agreed to continue with the status quo to try to get the cough under control. He started to talk about involving the GI team to investigate the reflux that was clearly playing a role in the cough. He left me his cell number and I settled in for a long day. At lunch, I refluxed on my Ensure for hours. Eventually I asked the nurse to have the doctor make me NPO, and order a swallow study the next day. I just wanted to make sure that every thing was working as it should. The doctor quickly agreed and I was started on IV fluids.
Monday. Dr. Lungs came in and told me he was going to have GI come talk to me at some point. They came in the afternoon. After some discussion, it was decided that I'd have another edoscopy the next day, followed by more tests if necessary to find answers. Oh, and the swallow study was unclear in terms of aspiration. So, the day dragged on and that was the end of that day.
Tuesday was scope day. I was again NPO. Transport came and fetched me early and we made the trek to the GI lab. While waiting for the procedure, all of the nurses were trying to give me stuff to stop the cough. When I was brought back to the procedure room,. the anesthesiologist was very worried about me. Truthfully, I was worried about me too Before the GI put me under, I tearfully asked her not to send me home without answers. She promised they wouldn't.The scope didn't find anything aside from some mild inflamation in my esophagus. More tests would be ordered for the next day.
Wednesday morning looked a lot like Tuesday morning. I was brought back to the GI lab. A nurse came and we chatted for a minute about my symptoms while she programmed a receiver I would have with me during the test. Then the real fun started. The back of my throat was sprayed numb and a tube was placed in my nose and fed the length of my esophagus. The end of the tube had a sensor that measured the pH of the stuff in my stomach and esophagus. The receiver had buttons for me to push when I had symptoms, changed position or "ate." The most fun part of the test was that since my main symptom was/is a cough, I had to push that button about 1,000 times in the 24 hours I had the probe.
Thursday was really awful. I coughed non-stop. I was sad to learn that the magnificent Dr. Lungs' time on-call was over. I survived having the the probe taken out. Friday was a long day of waiting for discharge orders that were never written. Finally on Saturday morning the train was set in motion and I was discharged. We didn't really know what the story was. Dr. Lungs suspected reflux, but my numbers were not bad enough to concern GI. Story of my life these days!
Day three was Sunday. I saw Dr. Lungs early. We agreed to continue with the status quo to try to get the cough under control. He started to talk about involving the GI team to investigate the reflux that was clearly playing a role in the cough. He left me his cell number and I settled in for a long day. At lunch, I refluxed on my Ensure for hours. Eventually I asked the nurse to have the doctor make me NPO, and order a swallow study the next day. I just wanted to make sure that every thing was working as it should. The doctor quickly agreed and I was started on IV fluids.
Monday. Dr. Lungs came in and told me he was going to have GI come talk to me at some point. They came in the afternoon. After some discussion, it was decided that I'd have another edoscopy the next day, followed by more tests if necessary to find answers. Oh, and the swallow study was unclear in terms of aspiration. So, the day dragged on and that was the end of that day.
Tuesday was scope day. I was again NPO. Transport came and fetched me early and we made the trek to the GI lab. While waiting for the procedure, all of the nurses were trying to give me stuff to stop the cough. When I was brought back to the procedure room,. the anesthesiologist was very worried about me. Truthfully, I was worried about me too Before the GI put me under, I tearfully asked her not to send me home without answers. She promised they wouldn't.The scope didn't find anything aside from some mild inflamation in my esophagus. More tests would be ordered for the next day.
Wednesday morning looked a lot like Tuesday morning. I was brought back to the GI lab. A nurse came and we chatted for a minute about my symptoms while she programmed a receiver I would have with me during the test. Then the real fun started. The back of my throat was sprayed numb and a tube was placed in my nose and fed the length of my esophagus. The end of the tube had a sensor that measured the pH of the stuff in my stomach and esophagus. The receiver had buttons for me to push when I had symptoms, changed position or "ate." The most fun part of the test was that since my main symptom was/is a cough, I had to push that button about 1,000 times in the 24 hours I had the probe.
Thursday was really awful. I coughed non-stop. I was sad to learn that the magnificent Dr. Lungs' time on-call was over. I survived having the the probe taken out. Friday was a long day of waiting for discharge orders that were never written. Finally on Saturday morning the train was set in motion and I was discharged. We didn't really know what the story was. Dr. Lungs suspected reflux, but my numbers were not bad enough to concern GI. Story of my life these days!
