Reasons for my Hospital Admission Explained in Greater Detail

ME in Hospital

Reasons for my Hospital Admission Explained in Greater Detail - LEAVE COMMENT

I have had quite a few people ask me why such a long hospital admission for a simple wisdom tooth extraction so I thought I would go into some detail to explain the full story.

Ok so its morning 4 of my combined chest tune up which is not going great guns but that’s not unusual for me as I don’t often prosper in hospital and my wisdom teeth extraction which is down to happen in less than 30 hours.,

In Quick..The reason for the Wisdom teeth extraction is not that they are bothering me, because their not. However the removal is due to needing to go on the  Active  Transplant list. The protocol put in place in Australia to go on the active transplant list means that all wisdom teeth yet to settle into place must be removed as a set of impacted wisdom teeth  after transplant is just an infection waiting to happen, considering your highly immuno suppressed.

So if you have read any of my blogs over the last 3 months you would have noticed I have mentioned this admission quite often as it was a planned thing as to get a surgeon who was willing to operate in a public hospital due to my CF doctors being all located at a Public Hospital …Not hard to find but it meant waiting quite a while on the waiting list which I was actually placed on as high priority..

So it was organised with both my CF team and my Oral Surgeon team for me to come in a few days in advance so to build my lungs up a bit which should hopefully make the surgery go a little smoother, in theory.

Now everyone seems to be under the impression I’m just having four teeth plucked out, well I’m not..

My wisdom teeth are physically not bothering me at all, only the top two have slightly started coming through the gum and that’s only to the point where a millimetre or so is visible. While the bottom two are 2 cm’s  deep in the jaw bone when viewed on x-ray, so quite a distance from even reaching the gum.

So what makes this surgery so difficult? A Few things actually. Number 1. My lungs at best are 48 percent so given I have sat around hospital I would say 45 percent at the moment is a fairer assumption..

I suffer frequent haemoptysis which means another aspect that has to be closely monitored in surgery.

I have moderate and progressing liver disease, which has so far caused slight Portal Hypertension and Esophageal Varices, while these at this stage seem to be under control they are an extra variable that play a part in surgery. Especially wisdom teeth surgery since bleeding is quite abundant in any oral procedure and combine that with having a dodgy liver and poor clotting factors and low platelet levels its quite important that all precautions be taken…

The final issue of the surgery is how close my top wisdom teeth are to my sinus, roughly 3 Millimetres away which means in all likely hood a small hole between sinus and mouth could be created when the wisdom teeth are pulled, which while not unusual means a whole new complication that needs to addressed…

There is also the matter of me CF related treatments that I do day to day. That consists of nebulised solutions,  most delivered by mouth pieces not simply masks. Those being Nebulised Tobramycin or Colliston along with Pulmozyme..

Now having oral surgery and having my jaw bone dug into , Its highly likely I’m not going to be up to having a plastic mouth piece in my gob sucking away on tobi, so that is also another reason I have been admitted and will likely stay a few days to a week after surgery so that all my medication can be done via IV.

Pain meds…Well they don’t like giving me Panadole (Tylanole) to begin with for liver reasons at least in high doses and we all know how bad morphine can be for someone with lung issues. While its great for relieving pain its also suppresses the lungs and makes it quite difficult to get rid of any secretions…

So these are all reason while I am in hospital., While in here I’m also looking at getting a few things addressed. One of them being the constant nose bleeds from my right nostril I have been suffering after any coughing attack which all come to the forefront after a terrible head cold about 2 months ago that was so concentrated in my nose and throat I have only in the past two weeks started to get a somewhat normal sounding voice back…

I also have numerous x-rays, bloods, and swab test I believe that can all be fast tracked while in hospital which are just some of the smaller tests I have requests slips for…it becomes quite overwhelming so using a hospital admission to get these little things out of the way is smart because you usually go to the head of the line as IN PATIENT as compared to an OUT PATIENT..

Overall the goal of all this effort is to finally be able to go back down to Sydney RPA (Liver TX)  and ST Vincent (LUNG TX) Hospital having fully completed transplant work up. Its been quite a road this Transplant work up.

I have been on the Transplant Work up road now for probably close to 18 months. I have been asked by some people if I’m committed because its taking so long, which I reply of Cause I am. I believe one of the reasons its taking so long is because I have to deal with two hospitals. They are both 180 km’s away, plus it hasn’t been overly urgent and I have been able to take my time in making my decisions, that being said I have been waiting for the wisdom teeth to come out for 4 months now so that was really out of my control..

As for general Transplant protocol here in Australia, Usually one is listed if they pass the criteria once that continually sit at around 30%FEV1 or lower. As of two weeks ago I had worked myself up to 48% from 42% 8 months ago. That being said and taking into consideration that I also suffer from liver disease my doctors have said I might ought to consider a threshold of 35% FEV1 as my listing point just to give myself an extra chance…

But at this point unless I get hit by a health complication out of nowhere, I still have a little time before being fully listed becomes a rushed situation, and this further reaffirms why we are taking so much care with the Wisdom teeth extraction as a rapid out of control Exacerbation at this stage of my health could greatly increase my chance of having to be listed much sooner rather than later.

As for right now I’m waiting for my Temazepam to kick in so I can get some much needed sleep while hoping this itch in my throat I have had for the past few days stays only at an itch  level and not develops into something more sinister  as like in the past I have always responded poorly to hospital IV’s mainly because I always seem to catch something from the extra abundance of people I come into contact with as compared to a full-on home nebulised treatment….

But any way my Temazepam is starting to workfffsgvrsfKknbfijn…….ZzZzZzZzZzZZz ZzZzZzZzZZzZzZzZ zZzZZzZzZzZ zZzZZzZz ZzZzZzZ

Further Reading

• LUNG/LIVER TX

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