My health held steady for most of 2016. I had a few hospitalizations and bouts of pleurisy - very painful, but treatable with antibiotics and steroids. Things changed early in 2017. My liver function crashed in April. I still don't totally understand why liver failure causes pleural effusion for me. Most people struggle with ascites (fluid in the abdomen) instead.
Pleural Effusion is the buildup of fluid between the layer of pleura and the outside of the lungs. It causes the lungs to become compressed and breathing becomes difficult.
When the layer of pleura becomes inflamed it is called Pleurisy. Many describe the feeling of pleurisy as sandpaper rubbing again the outside of the lungs with each breath.
Because I had reached crisis stage and was really struggling for breath, the doctor attempted to draw fluid from my side with a needle and then inserted a chest tube. It was my husband's job to hold me still. To say it was painful is an understatement. My tough husband had to let go and sit down to keep from passing out. It was rough! Finally, the chest tube was inserted and I was transferred to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
As the fluid drained from my chest, it continually refilled. It wasn't working and I was in trouble! My right lung had collapsed as high as my shoulder blade and the left lung was on its heels. At some point I had also developed a pneumothorax (air in the pleural cavity) in addition to everything else I was struggling with. It did mend without surgery, thankfully. With everything happening to me, I thought I would receive a transplant and get back on my feet. My doctors said no. They wanted to do a procedure call TIPS.
TIPS(Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt): the doctor enters the jugular vein in the right side of the neck, inserts a needle to tunnel through liver tissue then places a shunt in a hepatic vein.
I waited for 3 days for a specialist doctor to fly in to do the procedure. It worked. The fluid began to slow and the buildup finally drained. But the crisis wasn't over. I began to run and unexplained fever. They discovered that I'd developed a blood clot in the medical port I'd had put in for my weekly Prolastin C infusions. The port had to be removed before I could go home.
For 7 months, I felt great! The terrible pressure in my chest and abdomen had lessened, I had energy and hope that this could last a long time. The doctor assured me that she had patients for whom it had worked for 10 years. It made it to seven months for me.
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