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andrew
05-18-2008, 12:39 PM
**Nancy's story - relocated from the original site by Andrew**

In August 2005, I was 49 years old. I had always been extremely healthy. In the 17 years on the job, I had only called in sick (for myself and not my kids) a few times. I was having a hard time getting rid of a cough I had. After a visit to the doc, I was told I had bronchitis and given a regime of anitbiotics. I had never had it before so I had no reason to question it. Two weeks later I was back for a follow-up and given another round of anitbiotics since my cough was still present. Two weeks after that I went back but not with a cough. This time I thought I had a UTI. They ran a urine test and said the protein in my urine was high but everything else seemed to check out okay. Another round of anitbiotics and off I went. I went back a week later with no relief. I wasn't having the typical UTI symptoms. I was very tired, running a low grade fever, and just ached everywhere. This time they decided to put me in the hospital and run some tests.

By now the cough was back and worse. It was decided I needed to go to a larger hospital with better care available. By now I was on oxygen. I was transported by ambulance 50 miles away. There I was diagnosed with bi-lateral pneumonia (something else I had never had). After a few days I was sent home with some medicine for the pneumonia.

One and one-half days later I was back at the hospital. I couldn't breath very well (my BP was 80 over 60), I had a fever, my joints ached terribly, I couldn't hear very well, and my vision was very blurry. My GP and a local internist suspected it might be Wegener's. They conferred with the pulminary doctor who had treated me at the other hospital (who had his suspicions also). I was once again being prepared to transfer to the other hospital. By this time I was on oxygen again and my other organs were shutting down. I was in ICU at this point. A CT scan was done where several cysts were discovered (liver, ovary, kidney).

When I got to the other hospital they did a biopsy on my kidney and got a firm diagnosis of Wegener's. By now I was really out of it and don't remember much. I know I had several tests run and was on extremely high doses of morphine, cytoxan, and prednisone. About 3 weeks after being in the hospital, I came around and began to gain my faculties. By now I had gained about 40 pounds of fluid. My arms looked like they were going to explode.

On October 19, 2005, I was discharged from the hospital. The Wegener's had attacked my eyes, ears, sinuses, throat, lungs, kidneys, and muscular system. I had a cyst on my liver drained and we began to watch the one continuing to grow on my ovary.

In February 2006, I went back to work part-time. By May 2006, I was out again with pneumonia, but only for a short time. I was scheduled for a complete hysterectomy in September. By June I was working pretty much full-time but still didn't have much strength. In September, the day before I was scheduled to go to the University of Washington Medical Center (2 hours north from where I live) I ended up with shingles. Luckily I caught it in time and it didn't get bad and the surgery could go forward. The surgery was awful. I didn't recover very fast, coming down with pneumonia again in November and by December I was working part-time and still limping along. December 5, I started to run a fever that wouldn't go away. Then I started vomiting continually.

Back up to the hospital (which is 5 minutes from my house). By the time I got there my head hurt so bad I couldn't hold it up. Now I couldn't walk by myself. The rest is a blur. They did a spinal tap and diagnosed me with pneumococol meningitis. I was put in a drug induced coma and sent by ambulance to Swedish Hospital in Seattle. About 5 days later I woke up and 3 days after that I was headed home with a continuous IV of penicillan for a week.

Since that time I have progressively improved. When in the hospital with meningitis, the nurse told me to eat one yogurt with live bacteria a day and it would help. I've been doing that ever since. I am now off all my medicine, working full time, and enjoying many of the things I enjoyed before I got sick. I still have blood tests every other week and see my kidney doctor every other month. I've been realeased by the pulminary doctor and my GP also monitors my progress.

Aberdeen, WA
USA