06/20/2012

I saw my internist who again thought I was having more Asthma, but also said Asthma season was over.  I reviewed all the symptoms that I brought up in my previous post.  I blew a 215 on the peak flow meter.  He was a little puzzled why I was still having breathing issues.  He thought with my symptoms it could be acid reflux since I also have coughing issues when I eat.  I kept bringing up the other symptoms of problems breathing and coughing all the time too.  I thought maybe it could be something with the asbestos, but probably not, but an Xray wouldn’t hurt at this point.  I insisted that maybe I should have some more blood work and an Xray to check other things.  The doctor thought for a little while and then realized that he never had an Xray on me and that this would probably be a good time to get an Xray.  The doctor then agreed and said the chest Xray would rule out pneumonia.  We went to his office, he gave me a sheet to go do the bloodwork and another sheet for the prescription for the 2 view chest Xray.  The assistant gave me another steroid shot.  I was also put on a 15 day round prescription of Prednisone.  Along with a prescription for Ciprofloacin HCL as another antibiotic that would start treating the pneumonia if I had any, and also a prescription of Zafirlukast to help with the Asthma.  I also received a prescription of cough syrup to help me with my coughing at night to sleep better.    I left the doctor’s office and attempted to go do my bloodwork, but the office closed at 3:00 and it was now 3:15, so over to the Imaging Center for my chest Xray.    I arrived at the Imaging Center and gave them my paperwork from the doctor, and they gave me the usual 5 pages of new patient paperwork to fill out.  I then waited in the waiting room for about 40 minutes and then was finally called to the back.  I had to take off my shirt because of the buttons on my shirt, if I just had a tshirt on, I could have just taken the Xray in my tshirt, so I had to put on a gown for the Xray.  The tech then positioned me with my chest facing the back plate and took the xray, she then turned me to the side and took another Xray which she didn’t like so she repositioned me and took a second side view Xray.  I then went back to my office thinking that great I can get the pneumonia taken care of and get back to normal days.  The doctor’s assistant called me about an hour later saying that the doctor wanted to go over the results of the Chest Xray the next day.  I didn’t think of anything of it at the time, but now looking back at it, he usually doesn’t have office hours on Thursday, and he wanted to see me on a Thursday, so that should have told me something right there that something was wrong.

06/01/2012 – 06/20/2012

The night sweats had started back up on and off again without taking any additional steroids.

I noticed I had the following symptoms:
1. I am Constantly Coughing throughout the day. – Inhaler Doesn’t Help This
2. Coughing Guaranteed Every Morning When I Get Up and When Eating
3. When I Get Up I Feel I Have To Cough to Try To Clear My Throat of flem or whatever to Breath
4. Coughing Guaranteed When Taking a Deep Breath
5. Wheezing When Breathing all the time, especially when Exerting Myself
6. Night Sweats Continuing Since the Steroids, Never Really Stopped, Shirt will be drenched  and wet and wet spots all over bedsheets.  Room kept at 74 Degrees by AC plus fans.
7. Noticed that My Body not at its Full Strength.  This can be really noticed when picking things up and moving things around.
8. A little more tired than usual.  Adding more sleep, but this doesn’t help.
9. Cannot get hot showers in the morning without feeling weak and having to sit down, only cool to mildly warm showers.
10. Sometimes I just get cold showers to get rid of the night sweat feeling in the morning.

I need to make an appointment with my internist to follow up with this.

05/09/2012

I visited my internist, Dr. Alan Yager.  I told him of my issues breathing when exerting myself when simply walking up a flight of stairs or climbing a ladder or exerting myself.  The doctor said that it was Asthma since it was Asthma season and said that he would treat me for Asthma.  I was only able to blow a 180 on the peak flow meter.  I have never had a history of Asthma nor any problems with any allergies during the different seasons throughout my past 29 years.  I mentioned to the doctor that there was a possibility of exposure to asbestos when I work working as a student worker at UNO in the older buildings.  They told us after the fact that some buildings that we were working in may have had asbestos insulation in the ceilings and walls in which we ran network cabling.  The doctor said that this was too early to be a result of asbestos, but most probably just Asthma and that he did not see the need of a chest XRay at this time, but if I continued having problems then he would order a chest XRay next time I came in to see him.  The doctor then had the assistant give me a steroid shot.  I was prescribed a round of Prednisone to take for about 10 days along with a Z Pack of antibiotics in case of a possible infection.  I was also given a prescription for a Symbicort inhaler to use for 2 puffs every day and night to help with the Asthma.  I was also given a prescription Ventolin inhaler to use for 2 puffs when I had problems breathing or before exercising or doing anything strenuous.

The inhalers helped a little with breathing, but not much else.  The Prednisone did start giving me night sweats, I have never had night sweats before, so this was new to me.  After I was done with the Prednisone the night sweats were random, but never completely sheet drenching.

03/2012

The drip and sore throat was gone, however the cough was still there.  I also noticed that I would have problems breathing as in shortness of breath and wheezing if I walked up stairs or climbed ladders or did anything strenuous. This kept up, but I thought I would get over it, but never did.  I have a doctor’s appointment at the end of April, so I will bring this up to my internist when I meet with him.

02/2012

I just thought I was coming down with a cold since I had the usual flu like symptoms.  Constant Drip, Sore Throat, Cough.  However, no decongestant would work.  In addition to that, this cold did not go away in a less than a week like most my colds do.  This cold seemed to linger for almost a full month.