On Saturday the 4th my friend A texted me in the evening asking if I could take her to the ER at NEGA the next day. I texted back affirmative and asked if mid morning would be okay. She replied yes. The next morning she texted asking if I could make it earlier. Sensing some urgency I quickly got dressed and drove over to her place. One look at her and I told her there was no way in hell I was going to drive her, I was calling an ambulance. She was sitting hunched over on the porch barely able to breathe. The ambulance came and the techs did their thing. I told them she wanted to go to NEGA but was told no way. They would have to take her to our local ER as her blood sugar was in the 600's. Whoa! So we went to the local ER. There they discovered that she had a collapsed lung. In went the chest tube and on went the face mask to force air into her lung. Because she fought the face mask they had to drug her. And she still keptt trying to the it off albeit in a slow motion kind of way. I just kept telling her no. Kept talking to her to keep her calm. After what seemed like forever she was transferred to NEGA and put in ICU. Even after breathing treatments her lung still stayed collapsed for days. A CT scan finally provided the reason. She had a yeast infection on her lung! And it was preventing it from re-inflating. Another whoa! I've never heard of that but, apparently, it is not that uncommon at this time of year. Into surgery she went where the yeast infection was carefully removed without having to take any of the lung. The lung inflated immediately once the yeast was removed. Finally, a couple of days ago, the chest tube was removed. She is in a "regular" room as of yesterday afternoon but she still has a ways to go. Her breathing needs to be better and she needs to start walking to get the lungs to expand as they should.
Because she lives alone she'll be going to my daughter's when she is discharged. Just until we think she'll be okay by herself.
Now...all of this came about because she is stubborn and and believes she knows better than doctors when it comes to her health. Plus she was not taking diabetes meds as she should have. She was self treating. Had she allowed the doctor to examine her instead of insisting she knew what she needed all of this might not have happened. Had she allowed the PA to listen to her lungs she might have avoided this long time in the hospital. She knows better now. She also knows no more cigarettes, no self medicating and to follow medical advice. She's now on insulin for the rest of her life.
She's still stubborn and would leave the hospital right now if she could. She wouldn't make it if she did. So daughter and I are there, whether she likes it or not, once her parents leave today to travel to help take care of their son's family while he is in ICU in Illinois (or Indiana) with a bum heart. Seems like when it rains it pours.
By the way, the surgeon who successfully removed the yeast said they get anywhere from 50 - 100 cases like this around this time of year and they don't know what causes it. Another whoa!
Friday, May 17, 2019
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