CF Happens

Looks like I’m keeping the “being sick in October” tradition going…44 years strong. It never fails, I end up sick and on antibiotics pretty much every October.

I started having pleuritic pain (pleurisy) in my upper back about a week ago. Pleurisy is when the pleura (two large, thin layers of tissue that separate your lung and chest wall) becomes inflamed. (See picture below) One pleural layer of tissue wraps around the outside of the lungs. The other pleural layer lines the inner chest wall. Between these two layers is a small space (pleural space) that’s usually filled with a very small amount of liquid. These layers act like two pieces of smooth satin gliding past each other, allowing your lungs to expand and contract when you breathe. If you have pleurisy, these tissues swell and become inflamed. As a result, the two layers of pleural lining rub against each other like two pieces of sandpaper. This causes pain when you breathe in and out. It’s constant sharp pain because of course you can’t take a break from breathing so that it won’t hurt. Coughing and sneezing hurt like heck as well.

The cause of pleurisy is usually an infection, viral (example: flu) or bacterial (example: Pneumonia or in my case the pusedomonas that I culture in my lungs all the time). The treatment for pleurisy is to treat the infection and pain control.

I had a Telehealth appointment with my CF clinic today. I will be starting IV cefepime (2g) every 8 hours for 14 days. IV push is how the medicine is given. The medicine is in a big 30cc syringe, I push it into my accessed port slowly over about 10 minutes, then flush with saline and heparin. I’ve had people ask if I have to stick my port every time I get a dose (every 8 hours), no I do not. I will get my port accessed tomorrow. The infusion center will put a huber needle (see picture below) into my port, cover it with tegaderm. It will stay in there for a week. Then I go back to the infusion center to get more labs and get the needle switched out for a new one for the second week of treatment. The more often you access your port, there is more risk for infection.

I did spirometry on my home spirometer. They were not good, which I expected because of the pain when I breathe. My FEV1 was 29%/0.78L. My first two tries were 27% and 28%. Last time I did lung functions was at my transplant check up a month ago and they were 32%.

I don’t feel great in general, on top of the pain, so it’s better to do IVs now. I’m also starting a prednisone taper at 60mg for 5 days and working my way down. Fingers crossed that I start to feel better ASAP!

Until next time…