Wednesday, April 2, 2008

You're kidding, right?

So the past few days I've had some chest congestion, breathing trouble. Mom and I figured walking pneumonia, no big, but we'll get it checked out just in case. So we go to the doctor and she listens, says she hears nothing, my O2 sat is 99%. So I'm thinking this has been a big waste of time. She sends me for a chest x-ray and I go back up for the results. It takes a while and then she comes in and says I have a pneumothorax, which is air in the lining of my lung, basically a half-collapsed lung. They're pretty common after trauma, but a spontaneous one (which mine appears to be) is pretty rare, surprise, surprise. Honestly, I found it pretty funny, just the fact that it was me, and this weird thing instead of something lame and basic like bronchitis. Mom did too, and we were practically laughing while the doc explained it. She prob thinks we're crazy. So for this they take a wait and see approach, so I go back on Monday for another check, then if my body has re-absorbed the air, no big, if not they put me in the hospital for 24 hours on 100% O2, and re-evaluate. If that doesn't work, they basically go in with a needle to get the air out. Kinda freaky, and I hope it resolves on its own, though I kinda enjoy the whole medical rarity thing. Probably far too much for my own good. It's one of those psychological issues left behind by my sucky bone marrow. It's odd, because as much as i want to get better, there's a part of me that wants the drama of the more invasive treatments. I know I shouldn't hope to not get better, but I can't commit to hoping for recovery. Going back to school and having to tell everyone was a hark back to the days I explained bone marrow failure to my class. It was weird but pretty fun, another weird psyche thing. The bummer is I'm banned from physical activity and clarinet playing until Wednesday. Which mean probably no In C, no practicing, no clarinet choir, and no lesson with Corey. Also, no running in gym (how sad) and no exercising on my own (including walking to school which is a bummer as its nice out). So I now have nothing to do, and I am getting bored. I'll have to find other stuff to do to make up for it. Overall, a very odd day, and I'm sure it will be an odd week. I guess I am just a freak of nature, through and through. It's just so ironically funny that every time I go to the doctor's office, it ends up being weird. She said in a typical practice, you see spontaneous pneumothorax about once every two years. So it's like a 1 in 1000 chance. Which makes my medical history now like a 1 in infinity chance. My life is just one big instance of cosmic irony, I guess. What was a little off-putting was the concern everyone else had. Only Grace seemed to find any humor in the situation, and she said it was only funny because I found it funny. Well, I guess that's life... only really my life though.