Missed yesterdays blog.  Just a little tied up!  I have been having this escalating difficulty with breathing issues over the last week or so.  Just going up a few steps would leave me without breath and needing to rest.  It was exhausting.  Kelli usually doesn't examine me however the night before she did take a listen to my lungs and was pretty sure I had a pleural infusion.  Yesterday morning the home care nurse checked in on me and didn't like the sounds of things either.  We had been trying to get a hold of the doctor for the past couple of days but of course you never get to talk to a real person anymore and we never did get a return call.  The home care nurse decided I should head over to Crowfoot yesterday and get a chest X-ray   So around 11:30 we packed up and went there only to discover that the radiology department would be closed until 1 PM due to Parade Day.  So back home again to wait again until 1PM.  We headed back to Crowfoot and of course the waiting room was full with the place being closed all morning.  I sat there and wondered just how many of the staff had actually gone to the parade.  Anyways, it wasn't without it's entertainment.  Bill is always amazed at my nosy nature but honestly, when you just sit and wait in these situations all the time you do tend to listen in on peoples conversations and at the volumne they speak I have come to the conclusion they are quite happy to have an audience.  The remand center guards brought a guy in in shackles, arms and legs.  I proceeded to listen to his story...how many times he'd been shot and stabbed, his criminal history, etc.   Obviously pretty proud of his accomplishments as a human being.  The one guard looked mildly interested and engaged him in conversation, the other guy looked like he'd like to put a gag order on him.  The waiting room was packed with people reading their magazines but I'm pretty sure that most of us were tuned into this guy.  Just a little beyond most of our imagination scopes!  Well,  the prisoner moved from his criminal history to talking about his kids.  I'd put him in his early thirties at best.  He had six kids the youngest, his baby, by his description, now expecting herself!  Yikes!  Finished up there and headed home to call the family doctor to make sure she looked at the results before heading home.  Bill says my timing on these events is always incredible!  Christmas,  weddings, but especially Friday nights and this one particularily good.....the first Friday night of Stampede week!  We called the doctors office at 3:15 to be told everyone had left for the day and no the doctor had not seen the xray result.  I should just go to Emergency. The whole reason I went through this whole riggermerole in the first place was to avoid going to emergency.  I'm sitting there looking at Bill saying I am not going into Emergency.  We'll wait until tomorrow...can you even begin to imagine what it'll be like tonight?  A total zoo factory!  Well, I then got two more phone calls, one from the oncologists office and one from the Tom Baker Pharmacist.  Both were very concerned and stressed I needed to go into Emergency sooner than later. They were very concerned and I was in a dangerous situation!   So...put supper back in the fridge and headed over to the Foothills.  It was as busy as I expected with all manner of complaints, some very seriously sick people and then Stars arrived.  It's not very comforting sitting in Triage with patients on each side of you puking into their bowls and knowing your own cell counts are all over the map.  It took quite awhile to get through the triage process.  When I finally got to the front the nurse took my history.  As she was finishing up a nurse escorted another couple in to the room.  They were only there a few minutes when the very very sick woman who had been sitting next to me came in and said these people had jumped the que when she went to the washroom to be sick.  This wasn't their first attempt at jumping in front of other people over the course of the evening.  The nurse looked at this poor woman and said yes but THIS woman is very sick!  Do you mind waiting while I examine her.  I'm no nurse but I had been sitting in a row with these people for over an hour and I can tell you these people were pullling a fast one!  The sick lady responded "And so am I."  I felt so bad for her.  They sent us back to the admitting area.  There were about five stations, none of which were occupied so I just picked one and sat down as I wasn't feeling great.  The clerk told me to get up and go to the waiting room....I would be called when they were ready for me.  I just looked at her and asked if I couldn't just sit for a minute to which I was informed I needed to move on back to the waiting area.  She was a real snarly one!   We waited probably another hour before finally being called back to triage where I apparently snagged the nicest room in the house!  Basically a cupboard, but it did have privacy which was pretty nice and I did get the same nurse I had had the previous week who I really liked.  His name was Raoul and he was totally awesome.  Kind, competent, pleasant.....so awesome to have someone who clearly likes his job and is good at it!  We really appreciated him a ton.  By now Kelli had arrived after her nine hour shift at the Peter Louheed.  Isn't that just what you'd want to do?  A nine hour Emergency Shift followed by a few more hours of emergency in another hospital eating delicious hospital grilled cheese sandwiches for supper!?  I had a really great doctor last night.  Both Kelli and Geoff told me I was in excellent hands and had snagged one of the better ones. Still, a long, long night of more X-rays and waiting.  It was determined that I did in fact have fluid on my left lung, a side effect of the drug I'm currently on in 20% of patients.  I had to have some more xrays in some very uncomfortable interesting contortions but the techs appreciated me...I was the most mobile patient they had had all day.  Funny how a little comment like that can make you feel pretty good.  Weird, actually!  After this series of xrays they decided the fluid was moving so they could take it off.  Basically a needle was inserted in my back, entering the cavity between my lung and another layer where they withdrew the accumulated fluid. The doctor took a liter and a half off of me.  He was going to give me some fentinol before starting but I was having no part of that....that is one of the drugs that gave me the hallucinations when I had my first surgery.  Just wasn't in the mood for baby tigers in my room or paranoia about nurses not caring for me so opted to go with local freezing which turned out to be just fine.  The procedure really wasn't painful at all, just a little uncomfortable knowing they're sticking a needle in your back.  Had to go back for another series of xrays to make sure they had suctionned it all off then sent me home pretty close to midnight.  I was bagged.  I climbed into bed last night and do not think I moved the entire night.  Bill finally came in at 10 AM this morning and woke me up and I was in exactly the same position I had landed the night before.
Today I am a little sore and still quite tired.  I think they still have to test the pathology of the fluid to try to determine why it was there but suspect it will just come back as a drug reaction.  Also still need to find out if they think I have pneumonia which is also a possibility.  Still feeling a little punk today but hopeful will see a return to mobility and a little more vigour in a few days.  I keep thinking....Ok we did that......it's fixed, not realizing that these things are never an instant fix!  Small steps.