Dyspnea is defined as shortness of breath. It is scaled from 1-5, five being so severe that even dressing oneself produces an uncomfortable increase in breathing and heart rate, with fatigue. That's where I am at right now.
It's a symptom of the pneumonitis and it's really getting me down!
If I sit still I can imagine I'm totally well and that I could just jump up and run around the house if I so desired. Bzzz wrong! If I stand up too fast I'm just as likely to fall down! and if I walk out to the letterbox and back I would need to sit down for at least five minutes to recover.
It's incredible just how quickly my health has deteriorated. The respiratory doctor has promised to phone me on Dec 10th and review where I am at. He still thinks that the antibiotics will fix everything. However I've told him that the lung infection is secondary to the COP. Things won't improve until they put me back on prednisone. I've received two appointment letters in the mail for Dec 17th, (a chest Xray and consultation) so I can see they are already trying to push out that Dec10th date.
I'm not sure I can mentally hold out that long. Right now I'm like a drug addict waiting for a fix. To wake up one morning with no fever and no cough and some degree of energy will be awesome, better than any drug!
What really bugs me is that I advised them on June 8th that I believed I had radiation Pneumonitis, some six months ago, and they did not act on that at that point in time. How much damage has been done to my lungs in the months that have passed is anyone's guess. They told me at the time that both radiation pneumonitis and Hodgkins Lymphoma looked the same on CT and so therefore they took a "wait and see" approach. However had they just asked the respiratory doctors to review the scans and take a simple X Ray it would have become obvious. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!
Well it's time to drag my butt back to the couch and watch some TV. It's either that or sleep, I'm not good for much else. However I have no doubt that once back on the steroids my health will recover in leaps and bounds...
