Mama to all the mama's and daddy's out there!!

Hi all!!

I guess u all know that my dr's think i have lung cancer....My breathing has been kinda bad for the last couple weeks, and since i went into respitory arrest last June we dont take to many chances...I went to my reg dr for him to give me some antibotics and prednisone to help it last Friday...Today, was my follow up visit, the breathing was better, no hospital this time...which brings me to my problem, and if u dont mind i will send u to Tasha and Eva's bloggie to explain it all....My one bad noduler is growing, not in diameter, but in denseity....

This is from Tasha and Eva's bloggy:::

Recommendations based on Tasha's lungs being the primary concern right now would include some type of sampling of the lungs. This can be achieved via needle aspirate, which has risk of introducing air into the chest. Other means include

a. Transtracheal Wash (TTW): This is a procedure generally done on an awake patient. A stab incision in the skin over the trachea allows us to pass a catheter into the trachea and lungs. A small amount of sterile water is flushed in and hoping the patient cough, a sample is retrieved. This often can be unsuccessful with regards to sample size and can be very stressful for all involved.

b. Bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL): This is a similar procedure to the above, but it allows us to visualize what is occuring within the lungs and airways themselve, and allows us to obtain much larger fluid samples to search for infection/disease. This is performed under general anesthesia.

Blastomycosis

This is the most common fungal disease found in Minnesota and often present with respiratory symptoms, although any area of the body can be infected. To diagnose this disease, most veterinarians prefer to actually find the organism in a sample, whether it is an aspirate of a lymph node, fluid drainage from a wound, lung sample/aspirate. However, it can be very difficult to find on occasion. There is a blood test, a titer that can be performed, but it often is less reliable because patients may not be mounting an adequate immune response (the test looks for antibodies to the organism) or it may be too early in the disease course. There is a new test looking for Antigens, markers on the organism itself. The studies performed on the test are very promising and the test can be run on blood, urine or even fluid obtained from the lungs if we do a BAL.

This is more or less what they want to do to me.....I sure hope they dont mind i took this from their bloggie...My doctors are wondering why i havent already agreed to doing one of these procedures...How do i tell them i had a dog die from the anesthsia not long ago...and i am scared as hell....

My next ct-scan is in July.....I told them i would decide what to do and which procedure to go with then...My question is, which one and how do i get over being so afraid to do either one...if u have any suggestions i would very much appreciate it....

Peace and Luv,
Claudette