My poor mom, isn't there always something? She's been doing well for quite a while, but over the past few months has had some trouble with her breathing. Upon exerting herself she gets winded VERY easily, often starts wheezing, and basically can't engage in much activity for very long without running out of breath and getting tired. She went to a pulmonologist who took some tests in his office and found that her lungs were only working at 2/3 of their capacity and at only 59% or normal or something like that. He didn't think it was anything related to her heart and came to the conclusion that she had developed asthma. Asthma you say doctor? Oookay, if you say so. I wasn't buying it, but whatever. So he gave her some Advair to use morning and night, and her primary physician already had her on a rescue inhaler for the wheezing before she referred her to the pulmonolgist.
That was about a month ago. She went back to see the pulmo (this is now going to be abbreviated) on Monday the 25th, they ran the same in-office test, and got the exact same result. Therefore, the pulmo concluded that it was not asthma and decided to have her get a more extensive test called a Pulmonary Function Test. However, before having this test, the pulmo wanted to my mom to get a blood test to make sure everything was looking okay in her heart and lungs. I got a call the day before Thanksgiving (what a great day to call people with news like this!) from the pulmo's nurse telling me that everything was fine in her heart but that they found a blood clot in her lungs. Happy Thanksgiving! They are not sure if it is an old or new clot, if it is big or little, or to what extent it is, so of course they need to do a test on that to find out. At any rate, I'm thinking this clot is probably what has been causing her breathing problems and is therefore somewhat new.
So the test is going to be performed this Wed the 3rd and it's called a Pulmonary Angiogram. It's basically an x-ray of the blood vessels in the lungs...it assesses the blood flow so the doctor can see the clot to find out its size, where it is, if its causing any blockages, etc. I wasn't really told much about it though, like how long it'll take, etc. But it's just an x-ray, not any sort of procedure or anything, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
My main worry about the test is that they are going to have to use the iodine contrast dye that is used in CT scans to make the veins show up...the one that made my mom look like she had been lying in the sun for a week and landed her in the ER getting pumped full of Benadryl all day. So they are giving her a pre-steroid prep starting Monday. That is totally freaking me out. Giving my mom steroids? Is this safe? I asked the nurse about 3 or 4 times if this is safe for her considering all of the other health problems my mom has, and she reassured me that it was. So hopefully this will keep her from breaking out in a rash. They have tried prepping her with Benadryl before to no avail.
But even BEFORE the angiogram on Wed, she is to get a blood test on Monday to make sure that her kidney functioning is okay b/c the iodine/CT fluid can be dangerous if kidney functioning is low.
So that's where things stand. We'll get the prep pills on Monday and get the blood test done, and if everything is fine with her kidney (she only has one now, and if it is not fine, more freaking out will ensue), the test will commence on Wed the 3rd at 3pm. I am so nervous though. What could a blood clot mean for my mom? If it's big or is causing some major blockage, what do they do to fix it, and CAN they fix it? And what does this mean for her heart? Usually I'm totally on top of this stuff, but I'm honestly afraid to find out so I haven't been doing any research at all. I guess I should though, at least to prepare myself.
The breathing test has not been "approved" yet though...the one she originally had the blood test for (the Pulmonary Function Test), so I have no idea if/when that will be done.
Okay my 2 or 3 loyal readers, thanks for returning to read after my very long blogging hiatus. Lately I have been either too busy or have not really had much to say (which would be...too boring?). And I really was going to keep this short, like "The doctor found a blood clot in my mom's lung and now she has to have an x-ray to find out what's wrong and I'm really scared." But you know me. Please keep us in your thoughts.
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