Hi folks,
The past few months have definitely NOT been the best in my life to date. Earlier in the year, our cardiologist told my husband he wanted him to have a cardiac cath before the end of the year. (My husband had 4 coronary bypasses done in Nov. 1991 at the age of 41.) Naturally this has been a concern for me since he's been having some chest pains lately. He finally had the cath last month & now he has to have 3 stents put in the bypass grafts. Earlier in the month we had concerns for my 83 year-old mother-in-law. She, too, had a cardiac cath done & hers showed multiple blockages in several different arteries. At first they were talking bypass surgery for her (due to location of blockages, etc) but then they changed their minds & said they'd try to treat her with medication. She's also showing signs of Alzheimers & that's another whole situation. Our 22 year-old daughter, who still "lives at home" (more like stores her stuff here & spends all her spare time running with "friends") is really getting on my nerves & won't lift a finger to help out here at home (when she comes home long enough to take a bath, brush her teeth, & change clothes, that is!) I have more than enough painful, chronic conditions: FMS, IBS, carpal tunnel, bad heart, spasmodic torticollis, sleep apnea (it's not "painful" but the effects of it can certainly make you miserable!), chronic daily headaches, osteoarthritis, & abdominal adhesions.
When I went to the cardiologist 12/01 to get the results of some tests he had done last month, I think I may have just had another one added to the list. He said the cardiac CT scan was good & didn't show any new blockages. Then he went on to say that he might want me to have a cardiac cath to see if the chest pains I've been having might be caused by blockages in the stents I have (I have a total of 5, 3 of them are in one artery!). He said right now he'd leave that up to me. Well, I just had a cath last fall (that's when the 5th stent was put in) & I don't plan to do it again anytime soon! We also discussed the possibility that the chest pains might be a result of the FMS. He said there's a little narrowing of my carotid arteries on both sides of my neck but nothing to get really concerned about. He just wants to keep an eye on it & check it every 6-12 months. Then we got to discussion about the pulmonary function test. That news wasn't so good. He said the PFT they did showed signs of interstitial lung disease & that it's basically like scarring on the lungs. My husband quickly said, "But she's never smoked." Doesn't matter - there's no big tie-in with smoking & this condition like there is with lung cancer. I had never heard of it before, so I came home & went straight to the computer to look it up. I really don't like what I read! http://www.vh.org/adult/patient/internalmedicine/interstitiallung/
My question (finally, after all that explanation!): has anyone here on the BB had this condition or know someone who does? Does anyone know anything about it? I had originally posted this on the fibromyalgia BB & one of the posters there suggested that I post it here on the Asthma BB, that maybe someone here would know something about the ILD. Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all,
hchoneybee (Joann)