Livin' Part of Life

We have both mentioned in past posts that Utah has left us breathless. The cover photo above shows just how breathless we mean.

No, today did not quite follow the script.

I have had on and off problems with plurisy ever since my open heart surgery almost 8 years ago. If you don’t know what that is, let me explain.

Open another browser tab and Google “plurisy”. There you go!

It’s a relatively benign condition, one that I’m used to handling. My doctor makes sure I always have a steroid treatment regemin when I travel. Yesterday morning, when experiencing similar symptoms, I started the treatment. As in the past I expected to feel significantly better after 24 hours.

Waking up this morning, I was shocked to find that I was not only not doing better, I was feeling worse. Chest pains in a way I’d not had before. Coughing that didn’t exist in the past.

Karen asked if I wanted to go to urgent care in the morning. I said I wanted to see how I felt after a second dose of steroids, but that I would definitely go tomorrow if I didn’t feel better. That lasted until just before lunch, when I admitted I was ready to go.

As we don’t tow a car and really didn’t want to unhook, and considering we were so close to the facility, we took an Uber. The clinic is part of the Intermountain hospital system (spolier – the whole experience has been amazing!).

I’m going to summarize because I don’t feel like typing that much:

1. Uber to urgent care
2. Checked in promptly
3. Staff wonderful
4. Doctor very attentive and concerned
5. Chest x-ray negative for pneumonia
6. Suggests a blood test to rule out pulmonary embolism – ordered
7. Cough med Rx – ordered
8. Uber to lab
9. Blood drawn
10. Walk next door to pharmacy for Rx (amazingly, a pharmacy that just sold pharma! Like the old days)
11. Uber back to camp
12. Within 30 minutes, call from urgent care doc. Test positive, go to ED for CT scan
13. Uber back to hospital ED (humorously enough, three trips in a row from same driver – wonderful man)
14. Checked in quickly
15. CT scan taken
16. Results – lots of blood clotting in my lungs. Mostly the right, but moving into the left.
17. Start blood thinners
18. Admitted for the evening for observation
19. Eat dinner
20. Karen Uber back to camp
21. I write this post

There, that was better!

While the diagnosis was not what we wanted to hear, it’s certainly manageable and my body will heal itself. And it will not affect the remainder of our trip. Tonight will suck because I am here and Karen is up the canyon at Livvy. But at least it’s only one night.

I will close with this. We have both become used to wonderful healthcare at Cleveland Clinic. Traveling like this, there’s always a concern something may happen on the road, away from great care. And oftentimes we are just nowhere near a metro area.

Fortunately this happened near an Intermountain hospital system facility. They are a big system and well respected. Every single staff member we’ve encountered has been exceptional. We have been treated with care and compassion at every step. This is truly how healthcare should be.

I am particularly thankful to the urgent care doctor, Broc Parson, for suggesting the blood test that showed I might have clotting. If he had just shrugged me off, said it was just a bad bout of plurisy, I shudder to think what may have happened in the future. But that’s neither here nor there, as the saying goes.

For tonight, I will rest under the wonderful care of Intermountain and tomorrow it’s back to the fun!

If only they would bring be a martini…