First I want to warn everyone that I’m asking for help here. If you hate reading a diary like this as much as I hate writing a diary like this, please stop right here. There is so much great stuff on DK that I really, really don’t want you to waste your time reading something you’re gonna hate.
Okay, here goes. I guess I’ll start with what happened. Some of the APR readers know a little about this because I’m a frequent commenter there, but last May, right around my birthday, I was super happy because I got a huge truckload of mulch delivered to my house. I’d made friends with some local hazardous tree chopper-downers and found out that they loved to get rid of their mulch without having to pay to do it. I loved getting mulch without paying for it, so it was a match made in heaven.
I spent three solid days spreading that mulch out, and boy does my yard look great! Incidentally, you would think that someone like me that has a history of asthma attacks when dealing with mulch and who had ample masks at the house due to Covid would have thought to don a mask during those three days, but no. Seems like no matter how hard I try not to be an idiot, sometimes I’m an idiot.
So it should come to no surprise to anyone, least of all me, that a few days later I ended up in the emergency room unable to breathe. Everyone there was awesome. They loaded me up on bronchodilators and steroids and sent me on my way with instructions to follow up with my PCP in a few days.
Follow up I did, and my PCP said, “Yep, you’ve got asthma,” and put me on steroids for a week, but also said, “Hey, Nancy. I think you need to go get a pulmonary function test because when I listen to you lungs, I hear something that sounds like emphysema to me.”
Okey dokie. I went and got a pulmonary function test, and sure enough, it showed that my lung function is about 75% of what was expected. When I went back to my PCP, it was like, “Um, Nancy, you need to see a pulmonologist.”
I made an appointment, and it was a few weeks before I could get in, so in the meantime I took the results from my pulmonary function test and tried to discern with the help of internet searches what it meant. By the time I got to the pulmonologist, I was convinced I had COPD, based on what my PCP had said, what the internet said, and based on my very long history of cigarette smoking. I was all like, “Well, here goes. I deserve this and now I’m gonna have to figure out how to live with it until I die in a few years from it.”
So I show up to the pulmonologist, and he said, “Hmm, I don’t think you have COPD. In fact I’m sure you don’t. What I think you have is allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, or what we in the industry call ABPA. We need to do a bunch of tests to find out if I’m right.”
Now, for those of you who don’t know, and I sure didn’t, ABPA is a pretty rare lung condition and pretty much the only people who have it is people with asthma or cystic fibrosis. It’s an allergy to a fungus called aspergillus that’s a soil fungus and it’s everywhere. You can’t avoid aspergillus, but some people have this thing with it where it colonizes in their lungs and causes mucous to build up so much that it’s close to impossible to breathe. It’s rare to have it, but if you do, it’s treatable and can be sent into remission, maybe forever with proper monitoring and follow-up. On the other hand, if you have it and don’t treat it for too long, it can cause a cystic fibrosis type condition that is really, really not good.
So I went and got imagery and blood tests, and sure enough my pulmonologist is nearly convinced that I have ABPA. The only thing that’s keeping him from being 100% certain is that when I went and got the imaging done, it was right before I got my blood drawn, and unbeknownst to anyone, I’m allergic to the iodine dye in the IV they give you before the imaging so that when I went and got my blood drawn, I was in the early stages of an allergic reaction to the dye. I got symptomatic at 2:00 the next morning when I woke up thinking, “Oh, something’s wrong,” and I got up, went to the bathroom, looked at myself in the mirror and thought, “Who’s that?” My face was so swollen that my eyes were mere slits and all my wrinkles were gone.
What that meant for the diagnostic process was that the indicators of allergy the pulmonologist was looking for were indeed there in spades, but because of the iodine reaction, he can’t be 100% positive they’re because of the aspergillus. They may be there because of the iodine. Furthermore, we have to wait for two week to redraw the blood to test because the steroids they gave me for the iodine reaction have to clear my system so as to not fuck up the next test.
Anyway, I’ll go get that blood drawn and see the pulmonologist early in September, and if all goes as we’re both expecting it to, I’ll start a four month long treatment to send those little aspergilli into hiding for the rest of my life, if all goes well.
So all that is great and I’m grateful for so much, including the fact that this whole experience has made me quit smoking, I think for good. After dozens of attempts over decades, I think this was just what I needed. Another thing that’s great is Obamacare survived and I have insurance that covers most of the costs, and I can handle regular co-pays.
The thing that’s not great is that my Obamacare insurance, just like most insurances in the USA, hates emergency room visits and unexpected repeats of stuff, and I can’t handle the co-pays on those.
Those of you who have read me through the years know that while at one point in my life I made good money, a series of unfortunate events resulted in my being a very low income person by the time I joined DK in 2011. These days, I’m happy to say, I’m just a low income person, not a very low income person, but I’m still not able to cover the $754.19 emergency room co-pay I owe or the $376.43 copay I’m expecting for this last round of diagnosis confirming procedures.
One of the things I love about this site is all the people who help where they can and all the opportunities to help people when I can. I hate writing diaries like this, but I don’t hate reading them. Sometimes I can’t help, but when I can I pitch in a little, whether it’s for an individual, a cause, or a political campaign.
So I’m asking if you can, and if you want to, to pitch in a little to help me pay my $1,130 hospital bill. I will make it up to you over time by pitching in $3, $5, $10, or maybe even more where I can to appeals on this site over time. I’d much rather do it that way than to pay 23% interest to a credit card. I think it makes more sense for my payments to go to DK causes than Mastercard.
CashApp to nancyhjones is the best way for me. Paypal to jones.nancy at outlook dot com works, too.
If more comes in than the $1,130.61 I need, I’ll send every cent over that to GNR’s Act Blue campaign to support 38 Dems running for congressional seats that are said to be in play in the upcoming election. Please, even if you decide not to help me out this time for whatever perfectly legitimate reason, or even if you do, please consider pitching in to the GNR campaign.
Thanks so much for reading. Y’all are the greatest.
Love,
Nancy
Thursday, Aug 18, 2022 · 8:25:26 PM +00:00 · nancyjones
Oh wow, y’all, thanks so much. I now have enough money to pay my medical bills and some to spare. I won’t know for a few days exactly how much I’ll get to send to the GNR campaign because some people have told me they’re gonna mail their contributions, but I’ll be sure to report back when everything’s tallied, which allowing for DeJoy mail time (aside, why in God’s name is that man still there?!?) should be by the end of next week.
Also, I’ve spoken with my pulmonologist’s office and my insurance company after a couple of people advised me to hold some money back in case the meds for treatment are crazy expensive. It looks like the ones that will be prescribed, assuming the testing comes back the way it’s expected to, will be something that I can manage. That means everything over the $1,130.61 I need for my bills will go to GNR’s awesome campaign.
For your contributions of money, of wisdom, of encouragement, of friendship, and just of salt-of-the-earth awesomeness, I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart. DK and the people who hang here are simply the greatest!
Love,
Nancy