April 25, 2006
Location, Location, Location!
As anyone who has ever bought or sold a house knows, it's all about location! Apparently I own a very popular piece of real estate in the shape of my upper right lobe of my lung. A couple of critters have set up housekeeping there and have claimed the place as their own. They go by the name of pseudonoma and mycobacteria gordonae, respectively.
Back in January, I had another bronchoscopy and the doc took a sampling of the gunk coating my throat and upper lung. They found "noma" right away. It's an interesting little bacteria; one that doesn't scare easily. Apparently, no antibiotics are effective against it except one. Once given, the bacteria instantly morphs and becomes resistant to the only antibiotic available that works...so the patient gets one shot at getting rid of it. The respirologist told me that because I wasn't "really sick" (translation: on my death bed) he's going to hold off giving me the antibiotic until the day arrives that I "really need it". Hopefully, that day will never come.
The second critter to pop up didn't show it's face until 2 months after the scope. That's how long the culture takes to grow. "Gord", as I affectionately like to call it, requires a cocktail of three different antibiotics taken together over the course of a year or two to kill it off. We're in the process of growing another set of cultures right now to double-check the diagnosis, but it looks like the doc's on the track of what's probably keeping me feeling "under the weather" for the last little while.
"Noma", my first new neighbour, is the same bacteria found in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. The bacteria forms a mucous coating to protect itself from any attempts to kill it. This is why patients with CF drown in their own mucous. Mark gives me a treatment called chest therapy that is used to dislodge mucous from the walls of the lungs; it requires him to beat me with a "cupping" motion of his hands, combined with vibrating and pressing on my back in the area of my lung, which is then followed by a lot of coughing and spitting up. Pleasant...yes?
This explains why I've been getting low grade fevers out of nowhere for no particular reason.
So here I sit, two years after my diagnosis, still alive but wondering what will happen next. It seems like one thing after another and I never know what tomorrow will bring. The beauty of it all is that I learned a long time ago to take each day "one day at a time"; to realize that tomorrow isn't here yet so there's no sense worrying about it. Yesterday is gone and over and done with; nothing can be done to change it. All I have is right now, that's why it's called the present because it's a gift. That's how I live each day, with gratitude for the gift I've been given.
Posted by Sue Checkley on April 25, 2006 07:48 PM