It Was Just Too Easy

We were told that the collection of my stem cells would take 3-5 days.  They collected enough for 3 "transplants" in just one sitting.  "That never happens.  Two days minimum" she said.  At 4pm on that Tuesday, they called and said we were done and that I could come back and have the catheter removed.  Wow.  Another miracle. We stayed in San Fran that night and returned home Wednesday.  As Dale already said in her post, I started feeling ill, so into the hospital, again. Pneumonia, again.

The real reason I wanted to post this is to warn you all about BRONCOSCOPYs.  Today a doctor and 3 nurses ganged up on me.  "It's a very fast and easy procedure.  I'm just going to sedate you, spray a little lydocaine into your throat to numb it.  Then I'm going to put this very small probe down your throat so I can see exactly what's going on in your lungs.  Then I'll put a little saline down into each lung, then suck it back out, so hopefully I can get some of whatever is growing down there.  Then I might put a probe into the scope in order to do a biopsy of the tissue in each lung.  And that's pretty much it."  How long is this going to take, I ask.  "About 10 minutes" was his reply. 

Here's what he should have said. "No food or liquids after dinner the night before.  I'm going to sedate you.  You will be aware of what's going on, you will likely still feel pain and pressure and see things that will definitely scare you.  I will spray lydocaine down your throat, and this will make you gag.  I am also going to spray it up your nose, and this is going to be a very unpleasant part of the procedure.  Then I'll send the probe down your throat.  This is the least unpleasant part of the procedure.  Oh, by the way, when I put the saline into your lungs, it will give you the sensation that you are drowning.  But try not to cough, as that will aggravate things.  And, I almost forgot, when I send the biopsy probe down, you will feel it.  When I take the chunk out of a piece of your lung for the biopsy, it will feel like someone just tore off a piece of your lung.  Well how about that, It'll really take 45 minutes for all of this, but what I meant to say was that the prep work will take 10 minutes.  It will only take about 2 hours for the effects of the sedatives to wear off, so remember, no food or liquids until 2 hours after the procedure."

A broncoscopy is an unpleasant experience.  Make sure they explain it all to you before you let them do stuff to you.  I had to do it anyway, but I let the Dr. know that I wasn't happy about how this simple procedure was explained to me.  YE BE WARNED

Other than that, everythings going pretty well.  Hope you all are doing wonderfully.

Love.  Kevin