Breathing Easier

Firstly, we had a good reason to be thankful and to praise God this morning. Michael was able to sleep better than he had in many, many nights. Previously, Michael had only been able to sleep for an hour at a time before waking up to cough and spit up fluid. Last night he was able to sleep twice as long. That may not seem like a good night's sleep to most of us, but to him it was a huge improvement.

Today's appointment went well. The pulmonologist listened carefully to our concerns and thoughtfully responded with a treatment plan. The first thing he had Michael do was remove the borrowed portable oxygen tank for a few minutes so that they could get an accurate pulse-ox reading. With the oxygen, Michael's pulse-ox had been 93. Ninety-six to one hundred is considered normal. Our insurance company wouldn't pay for any oxygen system unless the pulse-ox was 88 or lower. Well, once he was off the oxygen for a few minutes, his pulse-ox bounced back and forth between 88 and 89. The nurse called it a 88, and the doctor prescribed a portable oxygen system for Michael. This will come in handy whenever he has to leave the house.

After quite a bit of discussion, the doctor decided to keep Michael on the low-dose steroid he's been on since his hospital stay last month. He said it was such a low dose that it's probably not doing much for him inasmuch as increasing the elasticity of the lungs as intended, but we agreed that it was helping Michael's appetite and the doctor thought that was reason enough to continue taking it. He also prescribed an oral medication for Michael's cough that can be taken up to three times per day.

It was his opinion that Michael did not need to take a pulmonary function test, and he couldn't understand why the pulmonologist we'd first been referred to would require that before seeing Michael. He reviewed Michael's most recent CT scan taken last month, and determined that now was not a good time to drain any of the fluid in Michael's lungs. However, he did say that the next CT scan may show something different and perhaps draining off the fluid at that point would make sense.

Michael was very happy that the doctor did not require any further tests, and that we were able to get home by lunchtime. Me, too!