To Whom It May Concern

Pleurisy Is The Diagnosis, For Now

Part of our preparation for deployment involves medical screenings, and with this immunizations. Last week, on Tuesday, we received the small pox vaccinations, which basically involves poking you in the arm several times with a needle that has been dipped in a culture of cow pox. This particular vaccination ends up leaving a large pimple looking spot on the arm, about half the size of a dime.

Most everyone has gotten this sore, it begins oozing and must be kept under gauze and tape to avoid infecting other areas of the body and to avoid contact with other soldiers. Some soldiers have exhibited other symptoms such as extremely sore armpits, red splotchy areas that follow the veins away from the vaccination site, flu like symptoms, and respiratory/sinus infections.

My culture actually took a little while longer to swell up and take on the look of a large zit, a couple days longer than the average I would guess. Yesterday however, I started having a lot of trouble breathing in the morning. I didn’t think too much of it so I let it go, but all afternoon it got worse and worse, until the point that I couldn’t breathe at all without stabbing pain in the left side of my chest as I came back from evening chow.

Now, something I need to point out here, I’ve had this pain in my chest for nearly 2 years, since October of 2003, following a PT test I took during really cold weather. I dealt with it for the longest time, but upon hearing the news that my unit was going to be deployed, I felt I needed to find out what was wrong before I got to Ft. Riley. We spent 3 months and a lot of time trying to get something diagnosed, and despite my objections, my doctor’s diagnosis was acid reflux. I just got done taking a 30 day supply of an acid inhibitor and that did nothing to stem this pain.

So last night, I sat around for a little bit in the barracks then, after discussing it some with belly, decided it would be best to go to the emergency room and figure out what the hell was going on. I got a ride with a fellow SSG up to the hospital and following some discussion with the doctor, about the tests and medication I’ve taken on the civilian side, he settled in on pleurisy , an inflammation and swelling of the membrane that surrounds the lungs. The doctor described what I was feeling as similiar to the feeling of a collapsed lung, that you cannot get your breath, and you try to force your breath but it hurts so bad that you can't, lots of pain. It was extra painful yesterday due to the small pox causing an attack on my immune system, which is normal, but the inflammation was greatly increased and caused massive pressure on my lung.

Upon reading the symptoms and conditions of this particular ailment, I’m a lot more comfortable than I was with that idiotic acid reflux diagnosis. Now I have a lot more to work with, to try and find out what is not allowing this to heal correctly (viral or bacterial infection that hasn’t ever cleared up, or if this is actually a symptom of a more serious condition, which I pray it isn’t.)

There is really no guarantee that it even ISpleurisy, but this gives me something else to work with, which is what I need. The bad thing about this diagnosis is that it’s called ‘diagnosis by exclusion’, meaning, if every other possible cause for the pain has been checked out, whatever is left over, must be what it is, and that’s where we are at right now. So currently I’m on an anti-inflammatory medication, hopefully we get somewhere with it.

If someone who is reading this knows more about this condition, or wants to comment, or has questions themselves about pleurisy, please feel free to comment or email me. I really want to find out as much as I can about it, especially if someone out there who had it long term like I seem to have had it, has actually gotten past it and cured it.

Current Lyrical Ramblings

I pray for you, baby blue
In the name of love I reach for you
In the darkness comes the evil of the night
Think about it

You Better Wait – Steve Perry