Yesterday proved to be the day of medical emergencies for the Cupcakes family. I love that my family actively supports my field of work by getting sick. They're so supportive.
I got an email from my sister sometime in the midmorning, accompanied by a picture of a decent sized erythematous lesion on either her leg or arm. Her questions was simply, "Is this a spider bite?" She also informed me that she'd had it for 3 days, so I was able to immediately rule out the mother of all spider bites: the brown recluse. With brown recluse bites, you know by day 3 that you need immediate medical help, if not sooner, because your skin will start to necrose and it's pretty disgusting. Also, her wound wasn't ulcerated so it was a pretty good bet that she didn't have a spider bite at all. I told her to not scratch it (it looked like she'd been scratching it) and to apply some hydrocortisone cream to it.
She decided to go to an after hours clinic to see about it anyway. At the clinic, the doctors weren't concerned as much with the bite as they were about this other major infection she had. My sister was in and out of the hospital a lot in 2010 and had a port put into her chest for easy medication administration. My sister had the port removed a week ago and, in my sister's usual medical fashion, it apparently was so infected that the people at the clinic told her she needed to go to the ER. My sister did one better. She called her surgeon's office and someone there was able to see her and begin to handle the situation.
In conclusion, I was kind of disgruntled that she asked for my medical opinion, but didn't take it and instead sought help at a clinic. But I am also glad she did because she was apparently unaware of the MASSIVE INFECTION she was harboring. Oh my sister and her priorities.
About an hour and a half away from my sister, my dad was having his 24 hour thyroid scan to measure the thyroid uptake of radiated iodine. They had found a nodule in my dad's thyroid and were beginning to assess it with a few scans. My dad was unable to complete his series of scans that day because he was unable to breathe when lying down. This had been happening to him more often lately, but it had become progressively worse. They tried giving my dad some oxygen but it was not helping my dad to breathe. My mom was out of town at a conference (though every time I talked to her on the phone she was at the casino gambling) so I was a bit worried about my dad when my mom informed me of both my dad's and my sister's little medical adventures that day.
Since my dad was unable to complete his thyroid scans, he rushed to his primary care physician's office. This surprised me as my dad only goes to the doctor when something is seriously wrong. He was simply going to ask the receptionist if his doctor could extend the antibiotics the doc had given him a few weeks ago for a cough, since my dad assumed that was what was causing his shortness of breath. The receptionist looked at my dad and said, "you don't look well. have a seat and we'll have the doctor look at you."
When my dad got into an exam room, he realized that he had been sweating profusely. They did a few chest xrays on my dad and the doctor did a few preliminary physical exams on him. As of right now they think my dad is just suffering from a little obstructive pulmonary problem, but hopefully they can rule out more serious things with the chest xray.
I gave my dad a call to check up on him and he told me all about his experience. As a chronic sufferer of asthma, I gave my dad some tips about handling an obstructive pulmonary disorder that I learned from an emphysema patient. The problem, with me at least, is that I have air trapping in my lungs. I can't quite get the air out. It feels, however, like I can't get a full breathe in. So even though my body is well oxygenated, that feeling of not being able to get a full breathe is not pleasant and even a little anxiety producing. I instructed my dad to blow as much air out of his lungs and then try taking a breath. I hope that technique is helpful to him.
Meanwhile, three and a half hours away from my dad, I'm still dealing with my headache marathon. I'm still chalking it up to left eye exhaustion. I try to rest my eyes as much as possible, but in the end I still have to use them for about 10 hours a day to study. I guess I can't complain, though. At least I don't have a crazy infection or a mystery pulmonary illness.
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