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06/17/2007: "Midnight Run"
It was midnight Friday night when Jeanette came to bed. That’s when I announced that I was having a lot of trouble breathing and we probably should find an emergency room. I have been struggling with a shortness of breath for some time but this seemed different. I was scared that if I fell asleep I may not wake up.
So we called my brother to cover the kids and we headed off to San Ramon Medical Center. They checked me in and ran a few blood tests, ran a chest x-ray, a chest CT scan, put me on oxygen and had me on observation for around 5 hours. It seemed that the oxygen was key as it helped by blood oxegyn level get into the 90’s which is normal. The x-ray was a slap of reality as it showed much of my lungs covered in tumors. Anyway. they sent us home at about 5am with an inhaler and promised to work on an order for home oxygen tank.
Last night I began to have the same sensations. I was coughing contiuously and unable to take a deep breath. From Midnight until 4am I stayed up watching TV hoping to make it until morning. Whenever I tell my mom I was up at 4am for some health reason, she always says, “You should have called me, I was up.” So I made the call and got my dad. He brought me down. This time, they suspect pneumonia or fluid build up that happened during surgery this week.
So now I am sitting in room #215 at San Ramon Regional Medical Center spending a couple days on antibiotics, oxygen and plenty of bed rest to see if we can beat this back and hopefully I will breath easy again.