Status Report

Hello hello. Again, I apologize because I think this is the longest I've gone without commenting on another blog. And at this rate I'm going to continue breaking records until midterms are done. Actually, because of one midterm but we'll get to that in a moment.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me so far. Much appreciated.

Online friends are the best. I love you all.

In good news, my lung has (mostly) recovered I think. Just a brief case of things being worse than normal. I honestly can't tell if poor sleeping causes my lung to collapse or the collapsing of my lung taxes my body so much that I'm more tired than usual. Or maybe it's sudden waves of stress. That can causes both so let's just blame University.

Speaking of University. Midterms are slowly being written. Social Influences and Aging psychology has been done. I'm not sure if it's me but the midterms feel harder. I'm doing alright in them but I really want to be hitting A's and A-'s to increase my chances of getting into Speech Pathology. Conservation psychology DOES NOT have a midterm which I am so grateful for.

And then.

And then we have Cognitive psychology.

Yeah... I really, really, really wish I could have crammed a different Science course into my schedule because I am getting torn apart in this class. It's not that the prof is bad, he's enthusiastic, knows the material, he even wrote the textbook and gave it to us free online. Anyone who saves me a few hundred dollars is a friend of mine.

That being said, the material is still very dense, very hard to get through, and the weekly quizzes are kicking my butt. Let alone what the midterm will do to it. It's all written, no multiple choice. The last time I was required to write anything for an exam was years ago. All that training from High School is gone. I am not looking forward to writing a short essay on comparing the theories of how the brain may comprehend and understand the world.

I guess I shouldn't have assumed that a higher level Cognitive psychology course would be similar to the lower level ones. Or maybe I've been studying for this class all wrong. I know a girl in my class who is getting by quite well just by reading the notes. I've been doing the equivalent of slamming the textbook PDFs into my eyes until something breaks.

I still have a day to try and save myself. Wish me luck, I'll see everyone Friday.

Me Not Healthy: The Lung Cysts (Part 3)

For those that are new to my blog, welcome! You're joining us at the end of a small story arc about my poor health and lungs. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

A quick recap from last time, I've been deemed healthy enough to be sent back to the comfort of my own home. They bandaged up the hole where the chest tube was and told me that the stitches in the other two incisions would eventually dissolve on their own. I only really remember two things from my at home recovery. 1. I slept a lot. 2. My hair starts to smell really bad even after just a week without a shower.

In the hospital I was pretty much just given a damp cloth to wipe myself down with. At home I was too busy sleeping, glad to no longer be interrupted by check-ups and x-rays. I couldn't shower at home just yet because I had to wait a few days to allow for the chest tube hole to partial heal up because I don't think I want excess water just sloshing around inside me. You have no idea how good it felt to get that first shower. You just feel refreshed, clean and rejuvenated.

That cat has no idea what it's missing out on.

A few more weeks pass and we go to see the doctor again. More x-rays are taken and I look and feel perfectly fine. They remind me again that there is a 95% chance that they got all the cysts. I should not have anymore problems.

And four days later I feel what I think is a cyst bursting.

Seriously?

And this hasn't been an isolated situation. Either they didn't get all the cysts, they're somehow coming back or I've gone crazy. Sometimes it's just a short period of difficulty breathing but recently pain has returned. Just last week I was walking up some stairs when suddenly I bent over in pain and stood there for a good minute. Oh, and did I mention that my right lung probably has cysts too? I've felt something wrong in it but a cat scan wasn't done on that side because it didn't happen as often as the left lung. And did I also mentioned the only way they can do anything is probably with more surgery?

So there's not much I can do other than hope the problem goes away on its own. I don't have time to go for another surgery even if it is free in Canada. It took me well over a month to recover so I think I'll just let it keep happening.

Insert obscure MSPA reference here.

On a side note, everytime it does happen I have a tendency to sleep in which pisses off my parents to no end. They think I'm being lazy and I'll let them keep thinking that. Better to have them think that than worrying about my stupid lungs again.

Speaking of sleep, that's another health problem I probably have. Maybe another day I'll discuss it.

Me Not Healthy: The Lung Cysts (Part 2)

If you're just joining us head back here to read part 1.

To clarify a few things this surgery actually happened a few months ago and I'm trying my best to recall it. Painkillers seem to have a way with messing with your memory, or maybe it's the pain that they don't block out that causes you to forget. Either way, that entire week was kind of fuzzy.

What I do remember was that my surgery was scheduled 4 days after the discussion I had with the doctor. He's one of the few specialists who are able to do the surgery and thus managed to work little things in the system for me. I was pretty lucky.

It was on a Saturday, scheduled for 11AM and my parents accompany me to Emergency, file out forms and wait for me to be wheeled off to the operating room. They tell me that 3 incisions will be made; 1 under the arm for a camera to be inserted (to see the cysts), 1 on the side of my chest for a tube to suck out blood and air, and 1 in the front of my chest for cyst removal.

They also tell me that this is a MASS improvement over the original surgery. They used to cut down the back of an individual, basically peel him open and then remove the cysts that way. My Aunt's friend's son had the old operation, he has a huge scar apparently.

Imagine this to be someone's back and that's how they used to do it.

I was put out for two hours and when I wake up I have a transparent tube sticking out of the side of me. I can see blood dripping through as it transfers to a plastic box attached to the tube. For the rest of my time at the hospital the box goes where I go. Its purpose is to be hooked up to a suction machine to help suck out any remaining blood and stuff from the operation and to store said fluids.

I share a room with a friendly old man who has cancer. I can't remember what kind of cancer but it prevents him from eating so he gets nutrients from other sources. My parents have brought me books to keep me occupied and my girlfriend Theresa has brought flowers. I didn't look at either very much because my hospital experience consisted mostly of me sleeping, only waking up to eat (and fall asleep mid-bite), interact with visitors (and fall asleep mid-speech), go for check-ups, or take painkillers.

I'm guessing this is what it's like to live in a Senior's home.

Did I mention how much I loved the painkillers? They helped me sleep, they took away the pain in my chest and I felt so relaxed afterwards. They started me off with Tylenol-3's. I've had them before and they were awesome. However, my body is kind of weird. And soon the Tylenol-3's stopped working after a day or two.

I'm guessing it's because my body gains a tolerance to things very quickly. They upgrade me to morphine which is amazing and I love it. I don't care that they're stabbing me in the arm every few hours and now my arm is all bruised and sore. I sleep like a baby, I can breathe, and I asked for it as often as possible.

But to my dismay the morphine suddenly stopped working. They decided to try something inbetween morphine and Tylenol 3 and gave me Oxycontin. It sort of worked but it never gave me the same feeling as the morphine did. And who knows how long it would take until my body no longer was affected by the Oxycontin.

I'm an addict and I don't care!

Fortunately the x-rays showed that I was healing just fine. The tube was removed, the hole where the tube used to be was patched up and I was sent home. They told me there was a 95% chance that they got all the cysts and my lungs would be fine from then on.

And I'll conclude this little arc in my next post. Comments and critique is appreciated as always.

Me Not Healthy: The Lung Cysts (Part 1)

As some of you are aware I'm not exactly the pinnacle of good health. Some of it is my fault, I could sleep more, eat healthier and exercise more frequently so I wouldn't be such a skinny nerdy Asian. But there are some things I have no control over.

I was a happy and active child but a problem began to appear as I grew older. Occasionally I would be short of breath without pain. It didn't make much sense but I ignored it until one day it happened along with tons of pain and breathlessness.

I thought I was having a heart attack.

No one knew what was going on during these bouts. X-rays revealed pockets of air spontaneously popping up in my lungs so they shoved a tube inside me to suck it out the air and left it at that. I don't know how many of you out there have ever had a foreign object half dangling inside and out of your body but I can confirm that it's not fun or painless. After this little episode I was informed should another bubble appear I would need surgery.

For the next year or so the frequency of breathlessness increased. There were times where I'd feel anxious, suddenly fatigued or "uncomfortable". Occasionally there would be pain. Each episode was different, it can feel like heart burn, muscle fatigue/soreness, a cramp or combination of the above and many more.

Finally after enough pressure from family I went and got additional x-rays which showed nothing. So I went and got a cat scan done on the left side of my body which most of the discomfort was coming from. Turns out, I had cysts in my lungs.

And the cysts just lined the top.

See, the thing about the lung cysts was that I was probably born with them. And everytime one of them burst, the air, blood, pus, etc. would come out, press down on my lung and BAM, breathlessness. They think that a drop in barometric pressure increases the likelihood of them bursting because whenever there is a drop, there's an increase in these kinds of incidents.

The doctors gave me a choice, get surgery now and (hopefully) get rid of the problem OR leave it alone and risk having more "Oh god is it a cyst bursting or am I having a heart attack" moments.

I opted for the surgery.

Which I will share with you in my next post.

I did not look forward to it.