About a month or two ago (time slips away from me) I began having significant trouble breathing, occasionally. My chest and upper back muscles would tighten sufficiently to make me feel like I was being crushed.\u00a0 Indeed, I was.\u00a0 According to a CT scan of my chest, I have some passages in my lung that are collapsed and I have a cyst that has formed.\u00a0 My doc believes the cyst is from when I aspirated while I was out cold for a few days in the CCU.\u00a0 We have a three-month CT scan scheduled to track the progress of the cyst.<\/p>\n
However, the victory comes from the treatment we started.<\/p>\n
First is an Albuterol inhaler to help the inside of the lungs.\u00a0 That is a welcome addition.\u00a0 My O2 levels were dropping to 89%, now they are back up to 95% and sometimes as high as 97%.<\/p>\n
In addition to the Intrathecal Baclofen, I started taking 20 mg Baclofen three times a day.\u00a0 However, this was putting me on a crazy roller coaster.\u00a0 I would fall asleep with the Baclofen and then wake up just in time for the meds to wear off and spasms to begin.\u00a0 I had an idea scamper across my brain.\u00a0 Instead of taking the Baclofen three times a day, spread the pills out to one every four hours, even through the night.<\/p>\n
The bands around my chest have lessened. But, the big win is in my mobility.\u00a0 I have experienced a significant decrease in my wheelchair time.\u00a0 I still have bouts of spasms, however, they are treatable by taking a Zanaflex.\u00a0 I keep the Lortab in reserve for when I can take no more.<\/p>\n
I stumble around the house, but I’m mostly vertical.\u00a0 I call it a win.<\/p>\n
I am concerned about the amount of Baclofen I take.\u00a0 As what I have is muscle atrophy, taking muscle relaxers are counter intuitive.\u00a0 However, there is no other defense against the incredibly painful, and crushing spasms.\u00a0 I never dreamed that my muscles would spasm tight enough to crush the air out of me.<\/p>\n
SBMA continues to confuse and confound me.\u00a0 However, we are getting smarter in my treatment plan.\u00a0 If I remain on the treatment plan for a couple days of the routine medication, I am able to stay out of the chair most of the day. However, today will not be one of those days.\u00a0 I had a spasmodic event from 5 pm until midnight and I strained some muscles in my hip and thigh.\u00a0 I can’t really support myself with them this morning.\u00a0 They will heal in a few days and I’ll be back “up” again.<\/p>\n
That is a win and a Blessing,<\/p>\n
In Christ,<\/p>\n
Jay C. “Jazzy_J” Theriot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About a month or two ago (time slips away from me) I began having significant trouble breathing, occasionally. My chest and upper back muscles would tighten sufficiently to make me feel like I was being crushed.\u00a0 Indeed, I was.\u00a0 According to a CT scan of my chest, I have some passages in my lung that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19,30,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseline","category-medication","category-spasms","category-spasticity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}