I have been in and out of hospital having various tests in an attempt to find out what is wrong. I have had pains in my chest for some time and that is never a good sign. So, I have had an exercise ECG to check out my heart - I passed, as there was nothing wrong there. A camera was sent on a visit down my throat to see if my guts were bad - nope, that all checked out. Pills of all different types have been tossed down my gullet - some did some good, others not. I have had electromagnetic radiation shot at me to make x-rays of my chest and ah ha - a 'shadow' was seen on one of my lungs. Shit.
More tests and an CT scan of my chest followed and the conclusion of all this? I have pneumonia! This is not a good thing, but it could have been a lot worse, so I am grateful for that. I had seen pneumonia as something that elderly people get and I am nowhere near ready to accept age is catching up with me.
So, more tests tomorrow, with a camera going into my lungs to take a look around - nice.
Hopefully I will be back to proper blogging form soon!
.jpg)
23 comments:
ahhh pneumonia... gary please be advised, once you experience it, because of the flare of the lungs and potential scarring you will be more likely to experience it repeatedly for ever after. get much rest, follow the drs advice, and get well soon!!!
Gary:
Are you sure the doctor didn't tell you to go somewhere HOT and arrid, like Arizona or Nevada to recouperate ?
About the internal camera, I hope they don't use a dSLR. It would hurt big time
get well sooner than later.
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Sorry to hear about your health. I had pneumonia about 10 years ago and mq01 is right. When I get a cold now, it's allot worse than before the pneumonia. I started taking zinc and it seems to help me avoid colds. It's good for your immune system.
Pneumonia can be gotten by any age Gary, so let that old feeling go!! :-) Get better soon! I hope that is all that there is and you will be back to your old...uhhh...not old...adventurous self!
Jackie, make him take vitamin C!! Works for me!
Dear Mr. France:
There reaches a point in middle-age where the common cold becomes the threshold for ailments that were once associated with nursing homes and cemeteries. I developed a cough, which I treated with gin and benign neglect (both of which were effective on previous marriages), only to have it be diagnosed three months later as bronchial asthma. My great Aunt Mildred, who was a stoker on the Titantic and who smoked unfiltered camel dung, had bronchial asthma from the time she was 11, and chewed her way out of a mine disaster in Wales.
Since then, I have had to regard the common cold as I would an unattended suitcase at the airport. Jim Henson, of Muppet fame, died of untreated pneumonia. It is amazing what the human body will tolerate... And what it won't. Take the pills... Move to a warmer climate (Tahaiti)... Have soup for lunch, and a gin and tonic evety hour thereafter.
Sincerely,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
The Bermuda Triangle of Biker Bogs
Please be very careful. All your friends are correct in that once you have pneumonia, it is easy to get again. It seems that colds are worse and develop into bronchitis and asthma once you've had it. I too, have a spot on my lungs and had to see a lung specialist. Fortunately ten years later, even though it is still there, it is nothing. But, every time I have an X-ray, it is spotted and the questions return.
Glad you have the Ms. Jackie to make you feel better. Take care of yourself.
Keep us posted!
Just lay low and take it slow. Hope you get back up and out soon.
Do take care and treat this as something to pay attention to. Pneumonia is no light weight condition. Let us know how it goes and I hope that camera is tiny.
Sorry to hear your news... get better soon.
(good thing you stayed healthy while on your tour!)
Yikes, pneumonia. No fun at all. Did they figure out if it is bacterial or viral? I had viral back in 1994 and it was no picnic. Off work a month and even spent the night in the hospital as I needed help breathing.
Hope you feel better soon. Keep us posted.
Gary, please read up on Valley Fever. It comes from the dust in dry arid areas like AZ and it mimics pneumonia but lasts MUCH longer.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley-fever/DS00695
I've had friends with it and some friends that live in AZ are getting their dogs treated for it. Nothing to mess around with.
Better safe than sorry!!
Gary, sorry to hear you're not well, and hope you get well soon. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record (remember those?) I will echo what others have said. Pneumonia is serious, and you need to take it seriously. And once your lungs are damaged by it, you will be at increased risk forever - I'm speaking from experience here - so flu shots and anything else to avoid seasonal illnesses become a must.
In the meantime, as that quaint English expression goes, keep your pecker up.
Cheers mate.
Gary, hope pneumonia is all it turns out to be...that can be cured.
On a historic note, folks used to come out to Colorado for the "dry air" to treat all kinds of pulmonary ailments.....just a thought. :)
Hope you get better soon!
dom
Redleg's Rides
Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner
Gary, I hear Cuban food is really good treatment for pneumonia ;-) There's a place near Times Square that offers treatments together with Mojitos :-)
Southern Spain is also the perfect place for treatments :-)
It's a joke people, Gary will get it :-)
Hope you get better soon.
I add my well wishes and my concern. Take care and heal soon. I admit to having selfish motives. I want to hear about lots more adventures!
~Keith
Hope it doesn't hang around long Gary. I've had it and it wasn't fun.
Oh my, thanks to the powers that be, that it's 'only' pneumonia. You had me worried. Quick healing, and take it slow. It will take a while to get it out of your system, and no, it is not exclusive for the elderly... I have been down with it after a virus infection, and I consider myself not even middle aged. Take care!!!
Kinda scared me there. Hope you're feeling better soon and best wishes on a quick and full recovery.
That is good in a way. I went throw that 2 years ago. I have acid reflux AND had a stint put in my heart. Thought it was just heart burn. Yea getting old is great....but it's the bagage that comes with it. Glad to hear Mrs. F is doing a good job. Get well friend.
Gary, I hope you're feeling back to your 'old' self real soon! Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.
Pneumonia is bad enough, but I'm happy to hear that it wasn't anything more serious.
Gary, all the best. Do not worry about blogs and comments, as you know, nothing gets lost in internetland, and there is a time for everything, now or later.
Speedy recovery, for this pneu(tire) to reinflate soon and not stopping you from visiting Croatia.
Axel
Wow! I'm glad they found it now! Heal quickly and feel better!
Thank you to everyone that sent their good wishes to me. I am pleased to report that although normal service has not yet been resumed, I am feeling much better now. A few days ago another camera took a trip into my lungs and they found lots of nasty stuff in there that was sucked out. Thankfully the doctors didn’t find anything else, so that gave me a great deal of comfort. Thankfully as Bob had hoped, the camera they used wasn’t a full sized digital SLR! It does seem however from lots of your comments that I will have to watch out for this in the future, as a re-occurrence seems relatively likely. Jack’s remedy proposals had me smiling uncontrollably as did Canajun’s suggestion about my pecker! Many of you made very welcome suggestions about moving to, or visiting warmer climates, which I intend to take up tomorrow as we have a week planned in southern Spain. One thing I did find odd and that is how many of the people that commented had suffered with pneumonia themselves – maybe riding motorcycles is not as good for you as I thought! Thanks again for your best wishes.
Post a Comment