It has been a crazy couple weeks!

 My surgery ended up getting cancelled again. I was in pre-op, with an IV and labs. I paid, signed, etc. and the doctors were just reviewing stuff with me prior to surgery. They pulled up my CT scan from over a month ago (for the first time...) and were shocked. It showed a huge mass/abscess in my lung and they decided that it was likely that I had a very serious and fatal fungal disease. It was too risky and complicated to do at the current hospital, so they stopped everything.

Then I had to wait almost a week until they could get me in as an emergency with the new pulmonologist at a more specialized hospital. So I got to spend a week thinking I was dying and they were talking about lobectomies, and months of IV medicine, multiple surgeries, timelines etc.

Finally got surgery last week and thank GOD I did not have the new disease they thought I did. It was just a very severe form of the rare Plastic Bronchitis I already have. My bronchi which should be like pinky finger sized or smaller had a baseball sized mass which they were able to remove plus lots more. Surgery took much longer than expected but when I woke up it was wonderful to learn I wasn’t about to leave my husband as a single dad to two toddlers. All the cultures came back clean and I am breathing so much better now.

My throat and lungs are very sore and blistered but it’s improving. My lungs now have several large empty cavities which will likely fill back up so I will get another CT scan in a couple weeks, and another bronchoscopy in Feb to check progress and clean out things again. Overall the best outcome I could have hoped for. I really like my new lung doctor as well, and I am so thankful to finally get some relief from my constant breathing issues.

I am still feeling fatigued and lightheaded. Which will probably not get better until I get my heart stent put in. That is currently on pause until my lungs are improved but will probably happen sometime in the next few months.  My stamina is also very low after months/years of poor health. I’m sure it will take me some time to feel normal again. Hopefully I will now be more closely monitored on a maintenance plan with the new doctor so I don’t get this bad again.