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5459121 tn?1368302116

what is wrong with me?

Hi, i am 43m 159lb 5'7 i have always maintained a healthy life and been 140lb til my problems.  i use to run 2miles in under 20 min.  7 yrs ago i had a collapsed lung (r) and had it inflatwd thru tubing.  since then i can hardly breathe, cant walk a mile without extreme lack of breath.  oh, i been a smoker of a pk a day since 16. anyway, i been on tons of inhalers and sometimes 5 at a time with no luck.  Within the last 6 months the doc took me off everything but simbicor and tudorza along with abutiral thru nebilizer 4 x daily.. 5 months ago i was put on high blood pressure pills atetanol 25mg 2x daily, 4 months ago i was put on cholestril pills 40mg chrestor, then 3 months ago i was put on paxil for ptsd along with social exiety, 2 months ago i was put on lasik water pills tessenal for this darn cough in total i am now on 9 scripts a day. i am now told that in addition to all the diagnosis below i have elavated liver enzymes.. i have no insurance, no money, no job, no income, just whats left of my reserves which is going fast on 1000 dollars a month worth of meds.  married for 20 years and wll like to see 21. this is what i am diagnosed with so far..

Congestive heart failure
ptsd
copd
social enxiety
tettinites
high blood pressure
high cholestrial
3-5 inch nodes on lungs and chest scattered
elavated liver enzymes
Bipolar
Now wearing glasses since all this.

Doc says need 2d echo
stress test
sleep study
none of which i can do because no money to pay for the tests.. medicaid denied 3x so thats out and ss office says i can work doing lite duty.. lawyer appealed but its been 2.5 yrs with waiting game... any advise?
5 Responses
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242587 tn?1355424110
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
I can only try to imagine how distressing all of this must be for you.  Let me share some thoughts and recommendations.

First, to have such an enormous reduction in your exercise capacity, from running two miles to “I can hardly breathe, is most unusual.  I suggest that you ask one of your doctors, preferably a lung specialist to explain to you the mechanism of this drastic change.  In this regard it would be helpful to know your measured lung function shortly after re-inflation of the collapsed lung and what it is now.  To determine if you truly had and still have COPD and if it is of a severity to account for the degree of shortness of breath you have experienced for seven years.  Basically I am suggesting that your doctors assess your lung function, determine the cause of any abnormalities and advise you if any loss of lung function is correctible/reversible.  One possible explanation for the temporal relationship of the collapsed lung to your exercise capacity would be that, with re-expansion of the lung, a part of it may have become “trapped” by excessive scarring of the pleura (the membrane that envelopes the lung) and maybe even associated with what is called “shunting” of blood resulting in low blood oxygen levels.  What is very important is to characterize your presumably reduced lung function so as to determine if the cause is  one that would be expected to result in improvement with the use of multiple inhalers.

I note also mention of congestive heart failure.  An ECHO could be helpful to confirm if cardiac disease is a major factor.  You might want to ask your doctor if he/she has observed clinical (physical) signs of heart failure.  If I were to recommend that one test be done, it would be that you  somehow find a way to get the ECHO paid for and done, because ultimately you and your doctors need to quantify the contribution of heart dysfunction to your respiratory distress and the nature of that disease.  It could range from coronary artery disease, to valvular heart disease, to heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy) to pulmonary hypertension.

Your cough could be secondary to medication, specifically the Atenolol or to lung disease.

Finally you should ask your doctor if any of the medications are known to be associated with elevation of liver enzymes.

The bottom line is that your heart and lungs need to be thoroughly evaluated and treated as necessary.  Given that you have “no insurance and no money” that will be difficult.  I suggest that you re-apply to Social Security Disability and look to being insured under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

Good luck
Helpful - 0
5459121 tn?1368302116
And one more thong which *****.. ever since the scripts i dont have the ability to ejackulate.. now normally this would b great because now i can last all nite except for i cant breathe to carry on.  wife says its a problem for her because she has now startwd passing out from the action.. doc wants to put me on viagra but i will pass... nothing wrong with an eraction... just finishing.. i think i have all my issues here now.. i have copies of ct scan along with lab rwsults..
Helpful - 0
5459121 tn?1368302116
And for the last monrh i have this morning cough that brings up almost a half cup of plem or at least thats what i think it is.. i am not trying to swlf diagnose. just need help figuring this all out b4 im dead from not being able to afford tests.. one more thing..   am a vet waiting around for the va to approvemy claim
Helpful - 0
5459121 tn?1368302116
And for the last monrh i have this morning cough that brings up almost a half cup of plem or at least thats what i think it is.. i am not trying to swlf diagnose. just need help figuring this all out b4 im dead from not being able to afford tests.. one more thing..   am a vet waiting around for the va to approvemy claim
Helpful - 0
5459121 tn?1368302116
Forgot, my oxy level with my own puloxmeter shows in daytime active 93-95 sitting 90-93 and wife said she saw it at nite as low as 77 but on average 87-89. E ery morning when i wake up i feel like i am ready for bed.  i am tired 24/7 my sleeping consists of me going to bed at 9.by taking rozarum up by 12 then back to sleep around 1am to be back up around 2-4am at 6 am i can no longer sleep.  its been like this for years.  2 wks ago i had major heart pain that took me to er they said at first minor heart attack and admitted me.. they said they were going to do the docs ordered test howevr when they found out no ins they discharged me the next day saying come back when u get medicare.. for the last wk i have this pain on the rite side by liver area that intensifys when i laugh or cough.. dont no what to do.
Helpful - 0

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