lung issues

[vdub]

I had mentioned this issue in another post with the steroid-induced hyperglycemia, but figured it deserved its own thread in case anyone is searching for a similar situation.

I had more tests today and another appt with a pulmonologist. He showed us pictures of my collapsed lung. Its really not collapsed, but is actually an elevated diaphragm because of an unknown issue with the diaphragm. I believe technically it is called an elevated hemidiaphragm. The docs have ruled out a paralyzed diaphragm and an enlarged liver (liver is normal).

Its amazing I can breathe at all – the right lung is 50% gone, but that’s not the worst of it. They also found a granuloma in front of my trechea. Not only is that restricting me from breathing, but it acts as a restriction that causes the air from one lung to simply go to the other lung when I do breathe, so I’m not getting much exchange of air. The granuloma measures about 1.7cm x 2.2cm (golfball?). I keep thinking maybe they are mistaken and all they’re seeing is an air pocket left over from when I had my thyroid removed, but that’s probably more denial than anything. There are likely more granulomas lurking around, so they were recommending surgery vice some sort of non-invasive removal so they could look around a bit.

Anyway, the docs put me on 40mg pred and gave me enough to get home. That’s the same thing the Las Cruces hospital did 5 and half years ago. We’ll be home in about a week unless the pred does the same thing it did the last time I was on those heavy doses. At that time, I drove 700 miles a day and still had energy left. Anyway, we’ll be home whenever (pending weather) and then on to surgery of some kind.


This is the right vs left lung. You can see how the right is elevated. The white spots in the lungs are mostly end-points for airways, but some are granulomas from wegs damage.
lungs.jpg


And this is the granuloma causing one of the restriction problem, but there are other issues, too. For instance, they still don’t know why the right lung is elevated.
granuloma2015.jpg