5 1/2 Hours and More to Come

I have spent 5 ½ hours at the clinic and hospital today. I go back at 3pm. I cannot breathe. I cannot catch my breath or take deep breaths. I cannot get the air to go into my lungs. They did a chest x-ray and lab work. That looked good. Mind you, the lab poked me 3 times to draw blood. Then I went to pulmonary for an asthma test, which about made me pass out from blowing. Then we took a treatment and blew some more. My rate of exhaling was improved by 63%, but didn’t fix my breathing. The doc decided to do a CAT scan. Back to lab I went to be poked again. Then I went to the hospital for the CAT scan. After the lady heard the clinic had a hard time with blood she called in an ER nurse to put in the IV. Well, the first time he hit a valve, the second time he blew through the vein and the third time on another arm he hit a valve again. After this they called in anesthesia to do the IV. He tried, but couldn’t get the IV threaded. He went to get an ultrasound machine to try to find a vessel that would be big enough for the amount of dye to be administered at that rate of speed. He tried again. No luck. In the meantime, the doctor was on the phone with my doctor to discuss plan B. This is another nuclear medicine study that will have me breath in the radioactive fluid, like scuba diving without the water, and then they will administer the IV through a smaller IV, which they say they can do. The isotope they needed was not in Brookings, but in Sioux Falls, so they have someone getting it now. I go back at 3pm for this scan. My arms are bruised and sore from trying an IV 5 times. Oh by the way, they are looking for a pulmonary embolism, otherwise known as a blood clot in my lungs.