Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Living with AERD: CT Scan and Surgery

The last of my appointments were a CT Scan and a follow up with my dr afterwards.  I wish I had a copy of my results, though I will be asking for them in the future.  The CT scan was a quick process.  I think it took me longer to drive out to the office then it did to wait and have the test done!   
Once I came out of the imaging center we went right across the hall to my doctor's office.  We went over my symptoms again now that I finished a cycle of Prednisone and Augmentin.  Which while I did feel better for the short time on them, as soon as I went off the Prednisone I was right back to square one.   I really enjoyed being able to breathe, sleep and smell again!  
At that time we were able to take a look at my CT Scan results.  My goodness they were scary.  It was very obvious that I had no ability to breathe.  Both sides are inflamed and blocking the nasal cavity.  The left side, the polyps are so bad they are actually OUTSIDE of my nasal cavity.  After seeing this, there was no question in my mind what had to be done.   My dr did discuss the options with me.  
1) go on living like I am now and just stay away from Aspirin & NSAIDS.  Eventually when I'm in my 70s this will/should go away.
2) Start taking Prednisone daily to reduce the size of the polyps and swelling.  As good as that may sound, Prednisone has many risks and I don't want to create more health problems in the future.  
3) Surgery.  

 I opted for Surgery.  I know that these polyps may come back but that is a risk I am willing to take.  Once my sinuses are cleared out we can begin treatment to hopefully keep them at bay for a long time if not forever.  My surgery is scheduled for 2 weeks from the appointment!

 I wanted to blog about this to get my thoughts out, track my progress and possibly help others as well.  There isn't much about AERD on the web and what is out there is mostly medical sources, not much in terms of first hand accounts.  I hope I am able to help fellow AERD patients.

 If you have any questions feel free to ask!  I'm happy to talk about my life with AERD and all that comes with it!

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Thursday, March 23, 2017

Living with AERD: Allergy Testing

This week is a busy one filled with 3 appointments.
1 - Allergy Testing
2 - CT Scan
3 - Followup

Allergy Testing.  

That is something that is definitely not fun, not painful just extremely itchy. I think the worst part was not being able to take my typical allergy medication for 7 days prior to the test. I was stuck with 8 sets of 8 skin pricks, 64 tests in all!   There was also no surprises either.  I'm allergic to all grasses, molds, weeds, cats, and dust.  The tested common food allergies on my though I did not respond to them.  I do know that I need to stay away from foods that contain Salicylates. I haven't started that diet yet.  I will be starting that soon.  Molds & Weeds, however caused a lovely, delightfully itchy rash up and down my right arm that just kept getting more painful as the day went on even after cream and antihistamines were given.  While this didn't show any surprises, it's nice to know that when I say I'm pretty much allergic to every thing.  I am.  

Except my dogs :D  I'm not allergic to them!  My daughter was thrilled to hear that.  

This is just another step in my treatment.  My next appointment is a CT scan and then meet with my dr for a followup and to see where we go from here.  

If you have any questions feel free to ask!  I'm happy to talk about my life with AERD, Allergy tests, etc!  

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