Updates on Charlotte, my moldy lung.

October 4, 2024October 4, 2024That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Poor Charlotte. Charlotte the Lung is permanently partially collapsed. Charlotte is… moldy with a fungus.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First of all! Please do stay tuned for the tale of my haunted anniversary trip, as it is forthcoming. I have pics and everything! That was going to be today’s post, but since I went to see my pulmonologist earlier this week, I’ll go ahead and share those updates with you who’ve been following Charlotte the Lung’s ongoing (mis)adventures.

This time, I met with my own pulmonologist, Dr. M, so we could go over my bronchoscopy and Pulmonary Function Test results. (The surgeon who performed the bronchoscopy had shared his post-procedure findings and impressions, but I’m not his patient.)

This is what Dr. M told me, in order:

1). [::Walks into the room; sits down; looks at me::] “Your lung has a mold.”
It’s the fungus aspergillus. It grew in a Petri dish in the weeks following my bronchoscopy. This took me by surprise. Of all the things I thought I’d hear, “Your lung has a mold” wasn’t one of them. (Charlotte!!) Dr. M suspects that aspergillus was able to flourish in my lung because of the intermittent immunosuppressant therapy I do for Sjögren’s Syndrome. That would be Methotrexate, which I’m back on at the moment.

2). My lung will always be partially collapsed.
A larger area of collapse would require a stent, Dr. M explained, but mine is small. And it’s fine. I’ve been living with it, and I’ll continue to live with it. I mean, what else am I going to do? And really, it’s fine.

3). My Pulmonary Function Test revealed air-trapping,
which is when all of the air that’s inhaled in a breath can’t be exhaled. This a normal finding for someone with a collapsed lung. It’s common with conditions such as COPD and asthma, as well.

–The creepy web in my lung (covering the smallest airway in my Right Lower Lobe) wasn’t a birth defect, after all.
Turns out that the web was a by-product of inflammation caused by damage (collapse) and disease (aspergillus infection), basically a build up of cells. A strange, filmy sort of mass.

–The scarring in my lung
is likely the result of the aspiration event and aspiration pneumonia that started all of this, and it, too, is permanent.

Oh, Charlotte. From aspiration of a foreign object to severe aspiration pneumonia to COVID to my intermittent immunosuppressant therapy, we had, in the words of Dr. M, “a perfect storm.”

It could be so much worse. I’m grateful, thankful that this is all it is. I certainly appreciate having an in-depth understanding of why I wheeze and experience shortness of breath, have occasional difficulty taking a deep breath, why it’s harder to breathe when laying on my back, why I have a dry cough, and why I can’t get through an hour of HIIT cardio or hike at a certain altitude without using an inhaler.

I’ll have another CT scan and Pulmonary Function Test and appointment with Dr. M in six months, so we can see how things are going.

My treatment plan remains the same. I’m continuing on my two inhalers. I declined the 30-day course of anti-fungal antibiotics, opting to see whether the fungal infection will resolve itself, though Dr. M thinks that I’ve had it for a good while. I’m to let him know right away if my wheezing and shortness of breath get worse, or if I develop other symptoms.

It’s been a good week. I’ve been enjoying my reptile kid as he gears up for hibernation; job-hunting; working out; doing the usual household tasks; being a Cat Mom; playing games; watching hours of T.V. with my Favorite Person; and reading a lot. These are from today:

Also today. Funny how it looks like I’m laying on one cushion. There are two.

I’m greatly enjoying the Andy Greenberg books I picked up, even though they get me riled up with fury and disbelief. Well, this one I’m currently reading, anyway. *(Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers)*

It’s the world we live in.

Okay, I can feel the Capricorn stirring. I’m tired. I’ll wish you all a good night and a great week ahead!

In which we celebrate my webless lung. (Charlotte’s Web revealed.)

August 2, 2024That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Why hello, friends!

With all kinds of shenanigans afoot everywhere we turn, it’s kind of a relief to slip into this space and simply regale you with the ever-so-exciting conclusion (I hope) of Charlotte the Lung’s mis/adventures.

First, here’s Yours Truly this afternoon, feeling glad to have received an overall positive report from my pulmonary surgeon when I went in earlier this week. I feel glad because Charlotte is feeling glad. If she’s not happy, then I’m not happy. Is that a normal relationship to have with one’s lung? Probably.

Also, State 48 REPRESENT! (Ahem.)

Now back to Charlotte: I did take pics of the surgery photos on my surgeon’s computer, as he encouraged me to do. Of course I thought of sharing them here, for anyone curious. If you’re squeamish, look away now!

To my disappointment, the creepy web wasn’t of the spidery variety. It was more like the webbing on a duck’s feet. As for WHAT it was, the surgeon isn’t 100% certain, but he’s pretty sure that it was a congenital defect – that I was born with it.

Ready? Okay, here you go:

The web stretched over the proximal opening of the lumen (medial basal segment of my right lower lobar bronchus).

And in this one, the angry red photo at the bottom shows the After:

Freshly freed of the web. After removing it, the surgeon treated the remaining tissue with cryotherapy.

My lab report was good, overall. The surgeon’s impression was “atelectasis of the right lower lobe,” which isn’t news – the atelectasis has featured in every CT scan I’ve had since last fall, including in one that wasn’t even a CT scan of my lungs. (It was a scan of my bladder, and the radiologist noted “right lower lung lobe atelectasis” because the abdomen scan captured the lower lung lobes.)

The surgeon also let me know that the enlarged submucosal glands he found in my right middle lobe are simply a normal aspect of Sjögren’s syndrome, “because Sjögren’s is a systemic disease.”

This was the best news. There’s no evidence of Sjögren’s syndrome complications in my lungs – just its hallmark signature on submucosal glands.

And this handily brings me to my next appointment in a couple of weeks, which is with my rheumatologist; she oversees my Sjögrens syndrome, as rheumatology deals with autoimmune diseases.

Finally, I will see my actual pulmonologist in January. Charlotte the lung is no longer on notice, and that’s what we like. She’ll have to undergo another bronchoscopy at that time, though, in order to check on the cryotherapy work that was done on the tissue remaining after her web was removed.

I believe this just about covers the situation. Thank you all for reading and for just being here, friends. It means a lot. Have a stupendous week ahead!

There was a creepy web growing in my lung.

July 19, 2024That Asian-Looking Chick 2 Comments

My right lung has become such a featured character in this blog that I finally decided to name her. “Charlotte.”

Plot twist: It’s looking increasingly like my lung issues don’t have much to do – directly – with inhaling that vitamin, or with the aspiration pneumonia that followed. It’s more like the aspiration event triggered a process, or pointed to pre-existing issues. More on this later, one way or the other.

For now, if you’re interested in my ongoing pulmonary adventures, read on!

I had my bronchoscopy done at the hospital earlier this week. It turned into a surgery. I named my lung “Charlotte” because she’d spun a web, which the surgeon found when he got in there with the camera. Surprise!

This strikes me as creepy, and not in a good way. Not in a spooky dark aesthetic spider web motif way, which I adore. More like in a space horror situation way. An Alien kind of way.

Anyway, the surgeon cut the webbing and removed it to be sent to the lab for testing, then treated the remainder of the tissue with cryotherapy, smoothing it down around the edges. The lab will tell us whether there was an egg sac with baby aliens incubating in my lung, waiting to burst out of my chest. I see you, Charlotte.

The web wasn’t Charlotte’s only party trick, though. In addition to that and the chronic scarring and atelectasis (collapse) that we’ve known about from the CT scans, there are festivities going on up in my right middle lobe: a lesion and some enlarged submucosal glands. The surgeon used cryobiopsy to take samples from each of those.

In addition to the biopsies, he performed a lavage (BAL) in the lower lobe, meaning he filled the lung lobe with fluid and immediately suctioned it back out to be sent to the lab for analysis.

All of this is in my right lung. CHARLOTTE. My left lung is completely normal. My left lung does not get a name. (As dubious an honor that may be.)

Something else interesting that the surgeon discovered is that the medial-basal section of my right lower lung lobe is abnormally small and narrow, almost as if it never really developed. He said that this looks like a congenital (birth) defect.

That about sums it up, friends. All of the information above is detailed in a much lengthier account written by the surgeon, which I accessed in my online medical portal.

There’s nothing much else to report. The next day, I went back to the hospital for a pulmonary function test. [::shrugs:]

It’s been a rough few days of recovery, but I’m on the other side now, and all is well. I haven’t worked out since Monday; the post-anesthesia pain and stiffness were more intense than I’d anticipated. I felt like I’d been banged up in a car accident from my waist up to my jaw! My throat and jaw are still a little sore, though I was only intubated for an hour. I still ache around my rib cage. It isn’t a whole lot of fun laughing and coughing. Overall, though, I’m feeling much better.

Next steps! In two weeks I’ll meet with the surgeon to review the lab findings, and he wants to go back into my lung in three months to make sure that the edges of the remainder of the web are still smooth. If they aren’t, he’ll smooth them down again using the same cryotherapy technique.

I’m looking forward to the lab results. I’m hoping for answers, a plan, and a different medication, because the Wixela isn’t exactly helping these days. (The Albuterol works, in the moment, thankfully, so that one’s good.)

I’m loving this worn out old skele-tee with its rib cage. I’ve had it for decades. It’s comfy and apt, and I’m glad it didn’t make its way into a Goodwill pile.

I’m leaning forward looking down at the camera with my hands resting on my thighs. It’s such a weird position, it looks like I have no neck, haha!

In other news, we’re going to see Longlegs tomorrow, and I’m so excited!! I’ve been waiting for this film since January.

Have fun doing whatever you’re doing that’s a good time!

More pulmonary adventures! (Lung updates.)

July 12, 2024That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Hello and welcome back to my blog that seems to be all about my lung. Seriously, I’m looking forward to the day I don’t have to come here with lung updates, because that will mean that everything that needs to be known will be known, not to mention sorted. It’s been a long year and two months of this nonsense, let me tell you.

Earlier this week I met with my pulmonologist, who, after listening to my breathing, said that he wants to get into my lung to investigate with a camera. The procedure, a bronchoscopy, is scheduled for next week. I have focal RLL (right lower lobe) bronchiectasis, RLL atelectasis (he thinks that this collapse is due to my linear scarring), and relapsed childhood asthma – that last, a likely consequence of the aspiration event/pneumonia. (If I never had childhood asthma, my current asthma symptoms would be referred to as “RAD,” or post Reactive Airway Disease… a fancy way of saying that I have lingering respiratory symptoms post-pneumonia.)

There’s a possibility, says the doctor, that my Sjögren’s syndrome is involved in some of these pulmonary shenanigans. I hadn’t known that Sjögren’s syndrome can affect the lungs, so that was something nifty that I learned!

We shall see, then. On my part, there’s nothing I can be doing differently. I’m diligent about taking my medication, and I’m getting regular exercise; when I described the intense workouts that I do six days a week, the doctor said excellent, keep it up. That was good. Confirmation is good. I can keep doing what I’m doing, and next week, we should know more.

That’s it for updates! Thank you for reading, as always, friends. And take care, please.

Several average days in the life of a jobless GenX-er. (FOOD and FITNESS-centric!! Lots of pics!)

July 5, 2024That Asian-Looking Chick Leave a comment

Hello. I’m a fitness junkie, a combat veteran, and a jobless GenX-er with PTSD, autoimmunity, and a partially collapsed lung, and this post is for anyone who’s curious about what I may get up to in an average week. Let’s jump in!

Every morning, first thing: I put in lubricating eye drops so I can fully open my eyes, and I drink water so I can swallow. (Sjögren’s syndrome.) Also, take I take my thyroid medication. (Autoimmune thyroiditis/Hashimoto’s.)

The necessary lubricating eye drops and a thyroid pill first thing in the morning.

Then I make the bed. We’re looking at my side of it, with my plush octopus (that I call “Levi”).

Making the bed, not crawling back into it. (Alas.)

On this morning, I was able to bond with my desert tortoise, because he was out. It was Monday. We had our first monsoon rain of 2024 that day, and Geronimo spent more time in the yard than in his burrow! I went out to enjoy time with him in the morning, afternoon, and evening. By the end of the day, my heart was full with Geronimo love. It is so special. HE is so special. He is my heart; I love him so much. I can’t even explain it.

Lots of time with my precious little boy on this day.

Then I came in and prepared our coffee, as usual. I love this little ritual, love looking forward to coffee. My fav is black with a powdered blend of eight mushrooms, and also powdered monk fruit extract. Kyle likes his coffee the same way, but he takes plant milk in his.

Black coffee with mushrooms and monk fruit.

I prefer to finish my coffee before eating breakfast. Breakfast is usually some kind of cereal with frozen blueberries. I mix up a half-serving of vanilla plant protein shake to use instead of milk. It is delicious! If I don’t have cereal, I’ll have a piece of Ezekiel toast with Earth Balance and a full-serving chocolate plant protein shake.

(Mon-Sat, that is. I make chocolate-chip protein pancakes every Sunday morning.)

Cereal with frozen blueberries and a vanilla protein shake for the milk.

I almost always watch a video or two while I eat. I’m subscribed to quite a few YouTube channels, a handful of which are just regular people whose shenanigans I follow in their vlogs. The video I watched on this day was one of those.

Next, I pop the rest of my morning meds and do my Wixela inhaler.

Meds. Inhaler. Horror-themed water bottle. Check, check, & check.

Then I head into the bathroom to press a warm/hot compress onto my eyes, which is both a Sjögren’s management thing and the first step in my morning skincare routine. My Sjögren’s mainly attacks my eyes and mouth. Mostly my eyes.

The morning compress on my eyes feels incredible and makes a huge difference.

After that, I get ready for the day – brush my teeth, do my skin and hair, and put on something comfy.

For my first task of the morning on this day, I continued with my office closet re-org project. This is where I keep the clothes I don’t wear on a daily basis.

Moving things from one closet to another always generates a re-org project.

I gathered things for the Goodwill, did some laundry, and also spent some time searching for remote jobs.

Tuesday! On this day, I headed out to the dentist’s for a cleaning.

Going in to get my teeth cleaned is about a Tuesday thing to do as any other thing.

From there, I went to do some grocery shopping.

Also went to grab a few things from Target. Now, I’m not an impulse shopper, and I don’t enjoy shopping for clothes, but I walked past this dress on the clearance rack, and I had to try it on. Then, of course, I had to buy it. It was only $9.61!

It’s hard to understand what’s going on just by looking at pics. The inside layer is a short strappy bodycon slip dress, and the outer layer is a long floaty lace shift. The back is open. This dress is beautiful, and I can’t believe that I got it for less than ten bucks. Believe it or not, I didn’t own a single long solid black dress. Now I do. I have an occasion in mind for it, too.

On my way home, I stopped in at a friend’s house to water their plants while they’re out of town. Later in the afternoon, I grabbed my usual protein bar for a pre-workout snack. I eat one of these bars six days a week, before every workout, and I never get tired of it. It’s basically a Thin Mint in bar form.

So, yeah, I work out six days a week. This day was Tuesday, so it was strength-training with dumbbells, aka Body Pump on Les Mills On Demand. This was release #99, in case anyone’s interested in knowing that!

I grabbed these screenshots from the video clip I recorded during the back track. Apologies for the horrible lighting, friends. Yikes. It’s bad.

Body Pump’s approach is an hour of light weights, high reps, and very little rest. These dumbbells are adjustable, and here I have them set at 15 lbs. It’s a good weight for the millions of reps that we do during the fast-paced 5-7 minute back workout.

The next day was Wednesday, and I spent a little time in the kitchen.

Fresh pico for days! I make it extra green (hot)

Then I made a high-protein “longevity” salad:

High-protein longevity salad with tahini-lemon dressing. I had half of a red cabbage, some green onions, and a couple of lemons to use up, so this salad was the perfect thing to make.

Wednesday is a Combat day. I have atelectasis (collapsed lung – mine is partial, as it’s only my lower right lung lobe); I have to do this Albuterol inhaler before I can start a Combat workout. Combat is basically 60 minutes of H.I.I.T., and I find it hard to catch a deep breath toward the end of the highly intense workout.

This is LMoD Combat #77, by the way. It’s one of my favorite Combat releases!

More apologies for the dark and grainy screenshots. The lighting was dim and totally unsuitable for filming. But you get the idea.

Later that night, I caught a mirror selfie almost by accident when I was talking to Kyle. I was standing at my little dresser getting ready to remove my make-up, and I had my phone in my hands. Glanced in the mirror while we were talking, and lo, I saw an opportunity. I will never understand how mirror selfies work, so when I saw this, I had to snap it.

The next morning was Thursday. Today. I had an onion and a scant cup of green lentils that I wanted to use up, so I made lentil soup for lunch.

I love an easy lentil soup recipe that calls mostly for pantry staples!

Lentil soup and spinach tortilla wraps stuffed with the high-protein longevity salad and tahini-lemon dressing that I made yesterday.

We also had the sugar-free vegan black bean brownies I made last week. They sound weird, but they are actually scrumptious, deeply chocolatey and rich. No one can believe that there’s two cans of black beans in this pan of brownies. It’s just a great recipe!

Tonight: Dinner with my love while watching one of our current shows.

I brewed up our nightly hot ginger tea. We started drinking this tea to assist with after-dinner digestion, and now, we’re oddly addicted to it. We drink it because we crave it!

Our favorite nighttime beverage: hot ginger tea.

When I sat down to put this post together, I realized that I never got pics of the girls this week! I immediately set out on a kitty-hunt. Here’s what I managed to get: