The truth is that I'm not sure how I'm doing. But there's this:
-
- My oxygenation level is consistently high. That's good, but my breathing is still pretty shallow if I move around even a little bit.
- My colon virus seems to be gone. This is based on a lack of bowel movements lately.
- But I'm peeing a lot, which is good.
- My enterovirus (cold virus) is probably gone, though there's no telling for sure.
- CT scan thorax: "Overall slight increased extensive bilateral consolidative and groundglass infiltrates. 4.2 cm dilatation of the ascending aorta. Tiny nonobstructing left nephrolithiasis." Got that?
- Chest X-ray: "Interval mild increase in left lung diffuse airspace opacification. Mild to moderate right lung airspace opacification remains without change. There is a small left pleural effusion and adjacent compressive atelectasis or pneumonia, new. Stable cardiomediastinal silhouette. Low lung volumes."
I gather from this that the flu and pneumonia are roughly the same as before. This is bad. These are the key things that need to get better, and I don't know why they aren't. I'm extremely fatigued and it's very frustrating.
We’re all pulling for you, Kevin. When you’re up to it please look at the comments on the posts here, and also at LGM and Balloon Juice. Lots of love for you out there.
+100
Not being able to breathe is the pits. Here's hoping you can get those lungs opened up with some pneumonia prevention exercises and pursed lip breathing and vault you back out of that bed. I'll be rooting for you.
Been checking every hour or so to make sure you're still with us. You are not allowed to go away. I mean it!
Definitely not allowed!
One day at a time
Drop us a short update now and then but only when you feel up to it. Or just a cat picture
I am so enraged every day that...my health and sanity are severely at risk. Stay away from the news if possible.
They do have now some fairly decent corticosteroids lung medications...But, I must fairly note that there are at least a half-dozen being touted...depending on the person, some work better than others. However, this is entirely a trial and error proposition. ...there ain't no easy way which might work best for you. Best Wishes, and Good Luck Traveller
FWIW radiographic findings lag clinical improvement, probably by about a day on average.
I've had pneumonia with pleural effusions. It's frustratingly slow recovery, eight days in hospital for me and I didn't have your other issues. Hang in there.
Well, we're all pulling for you. Take it slow. And those first four bullet points seem....positive?
And a large orange drink!
Driver at work tore off loading dock door and we had to load all the gear for the TV show “indoors” in 14° weather.
I get home frozen and miserable - a shit day suddenly turned around by these two posts.
Love ya Kevdude.
It's like the sun coming out after a long, gloomy week.
Keep fighting Kevin. It’ll make the MAGAs mad! 🤓🐶🌵
Sounds like your IgG support is working. Comparing the tone to your past updates, it sure seems like you're doing better than about 10 days ago. It's gone from dire to frustrated and concerned.
There's no context to your lung scans (supp O2?; antiviral treatment?; balancing of corticosteroids?) so it's hard to interpret the status of your pneumonia. But, relative to those early-2020 folks with COVID lungs, you're doing fine.
Seems like you've got this. At the risk of stating the obvious, drink a lot more water. ✊🏼
Very glad to see this and the previous post, as I was getting worried (more worried)—very glad there have been some signs of improvement, and very much hope this means you’re bouncing back overall, Kevin, no matter how slowly.
Stay with us. My evening has gone from cold misery to feeling much better. If you're not getting worse, there's still a chance to get better. Your body has been through a lot. It makes sense that its gonna take extra time to repair damage. So hang on. Because the best thing you could possibly do to combat Trusk is to stay alive.
What on Earth are 'groundglass infiltrates'? That sounds worse than pneumonia!
Yes, that got my attention, too. Horrid.
I'm counting this as good news. Recovery was never going to be quick. I hate that you're having a hard time getting your breath-- that's miserable-- but I have hope that you're coming back from this crisis.
Wishing every good thing to you and Marian.
In your overall condition, be prepared to be patient, may take some (extended) time for all that to clear out in a significant way (to you), at least you're still breathing and with us, happy to hear!
https://www.healthline.com/health/lung-consolidation#symptoms
"Consolidation almost always makes it difficult for you to breathe. Air can’t get through the consolidation, so your lung can’t do its job of bringing in fresh air and removing the air your body has used. This may make you feel short of breath. It may also make your skin look pale or bluish due to a lack of oxygen."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/ground-glass-opacity
"Ground glass opacity remains a finding that causes confusion both in identification and in interpretation [7]. Ground glass opacity describes lung that is higher in attenuation than normal lung at inspiration, but lower than the attenuation of bronchial walls and blood vessels so that these lung markings remain visible (Fig. 4).
Ground glass opacity can be caused by any process that decreases the relative amount of air in the lung without completely removing or replacing the air in the lung with other material.
The differential diagnosis is lengthy, and includes normal lung at expiration and otherwise normal lung that is receiving greater than usual amounts of blood flow, often caused by shunting of blood from poorly ventilated lung to well-ventilated lung. In addition to normal lung, any process that partially fills the alveoli, thickens the alveolar wall or interstitium, or that results in diffuse distribution of high-attenuation material in the lung can produce this appearance.
Etiologies of ground glass opacity in these categories include etiologies as diverse as pulmonary hemorrhage and infection, increased cellularity of the interstitium and pulmonary fibrosis, and pulmonary calcinosis."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211568420301583
Most typical CT features of COVID-19 pneumonia include bilateral and multifocal ground-glass opacities predominating in the peripheral, posterior and basal parts of the lungs.
"Initial chest CT examination must be performed without intravenous administration of iodinated contrast material, but contrast material administration is required when pulmonary embolism is suspected, which seems to be frequent in severe forms of the disease. Typical CT features consist of bilateral ground-glass opacities with peripheral, posterior and basal predominance. Lung disease extent on CT correlates with clinical severity."
^ all of that should be quoted, and just an example that pneumonia can present this way
https://ajronline.org/doi/10.2214/AJR.05.1826 (hypersensitivity pneumonitis)
"High-resolution CT plays an important role in the diagnosis of HP. A confident diagnosis of subacute HP is based on the presence of ground-glass opacities, poorly defined centrilobular nodules, and mosaic attenuation on inspiratory images and of air trapping on expiratory CT images. Chronic HP is characterized on high-resolution CT by the presence of reticulation due to fibrosis superimposed on findings of subacute HP.
Histologically, subacute HP is characterized by the presence of cellular bronchiolitis, noncaseating granulomas, and bronchiolocentric lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis. Areas of organizing pneumonia also may be seen. The high-resolution CT and pathologic features of chronic HP frequently overlap with those of nonspecific interstitial pneumonia and usual interstitial pneumonia. Awareness of the various manifestations of HP is important for early diagnosis and management."
👍👍👍
Kevin, if you're reading this something jumped out at me. In you CT. The " groundglass infiltrates" are pretty classic for hypersensitivity pneumonitis. God knows why you got it - it's an autoimmune disease. The treatment is steroids. IF you not on them, maybe some Solu-Medrol IV. The doctor won't like you telling him what you think, but who cares. Tell him anyway.
that is not at all classic of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. it's extremely nonspecific. in the context of the rest of his clinical picture, it's the pneumonia.
https://radiopaedia.org/articles/ground-glass-opacification-3?lang=us
giving him steroids when he's immunocompromised is probably a bad idea
I guess time will tell. BTW, my chest CT looked just like Kevin's and I had HP. Thank god for steroids.
Still writing! Great! So many pulling for you!
The comments here are so moving.
DFP
> Tiny nonobstructing left nephrolithiasis.
Kidney stones, but they aren't blocking (e.g. you are peeing), so it's not that bad for now.
Get well!
BEWARE KIDNEY STONES. Massive acute pain. They can numb your mind for the pain but the rest of the symptoms you have won't respond well.
Short breathing does not mean imminent doom- in fact the breathing issues will linger for a long while even after everything is controlled (I have had long Covid for over six months and my fatigue level varies greatly)- your posting is actually good news- your body is reacting and fighting- you are probably over the worst for the time being but you have to be alert for unexpected changes. Make sure you take proper supplements and especially keep the flow of the antibodies going- also try not to stress (if that means ignoring Trump for a week I’m sure we will all manage). Basically what I’m saying is common sense: follow the doctors instructions but be proactive.
You are in my constant thoughts and I am always so happy when you post.
+1000
Ditto. As someone posted the other day, every page refresh is a little prayer.
It usually takes days to see the pneumonia start to clear up on the xray and a month or more for it to completely resolve. There's leftover inflammation after the infection has been controlled.
Yeah, the body just throws trash all around when it's doing things, waiting for the vascular system to get around to remove it. That's why muscles are sore after using them - they just get extra atp etc sitting around waiting to get taken to the liver. And that takes time.
Places like the lungs and materials like dead cells and build ups of fluid and especially plaques can take basically forever. So much so the body sometimes just walls over where they are and tries to forget about it!
The human body can be pretty strange and hard to predict.
Hang in there Kevin! We are all pulling for you. Fluids. Push fluids and rest. Keep changing position in bed so the fluid doesn’t localize and cause more pneumonia.
So glad to have you back.
It's been great to see you blogging a bit! Please hang in there. We rely on you to try to stay sane in these times.
Just so glad you’re still breathing, Kevin! The healing sounds agonizingly slow, & I can barely imagine how tough that must be. But your body is showing stubborn strength, & some things are changing for the better. That’s a huge relief to literally hundreds of people right now. Just (!) keep going, & know that we’re all sticking with you, however long it takes.
You know what, shut up old man, and heal. We'll wait.
This!
Best of luck for continued recovery!
PS Presume you're getting annual flu and 5-year pneumonia vaccines in more normal health times? Both should be available relatively inexpensively.
You're here to tell us about it. That's a win.
That's what I wanted to post ^-^
Not to sound extremely selfish, but it's good to see you posting again and I hope for a quicker recovery! All my best to you and your family.