Jenn's Husband's Story - TTT - Kenny's LVRS

Hey everyone. I just wanted to share my husband's story. Hope it gives you hope. Thanks for everyone's support. I could not have gone through that time without the people on this forum:

 Last August, Kenny, my husband began to get severely short of breath. He would be outside doing yardwork and would have to come inside because it was too hot. Taking the garbage out was too much, carrying in grocery bags was too much, turning over in the bed was too much. Then at nights, he would wake up in the middle of the night holding onto the edge of the bed just trying to breathe. We would call the ambulance in the middle of the night. The hospital would take some x-rays, give him some breathing treatments and send him home with some prednisone. During all these visits the doctors (thoracic team) never did a chest tube, even though later we found out that this would have helped him tremendously.

During one ER visit in late August, the doctors told us that nothing had changed in his x-rays and he needed a lung transplant and we should try to get on a list somewhere. Then, they sent us home with supplemental oxygen because his sats were registering at 87.

 One night, Kenny woke up and told me to turn up the concentrator and call the ambulance. He went into shock, couldn't breathe and the emergency room had to do an emergency chest tube procedure because one of the bullae had burst and he had no air to breathe into his lungs. The ER doctor told me that he HAD to do a chest tube that night. They performed the chest tube procedure and my husband's vitals started looking better and he started coming back to us. They didn't release him this time. The thoracic team was trying to decide what kind of emphysema he had and did all sorts of tests and x-rays. They came to the conclusion that his only option was a transplant.

 One day, his pulmo finally came to visit him and asked if him if he was interested in having Dr. Mark Ginsberg at Presbyterian Hospital in New York city possibly perform a lung volume reduction surgery. Of course! This is the surgery that we wanted to do the whole time. His pulmo said that a transplant was not even in the picture. So that Wednesday, he was transferred in an ambulance to NYC. I called him that evening as I was trimming his rose bushes for him. He said he wasn't feeling well and he would call me later.

At 11:30 pm that evening, I received a call from Presbyterian. They told me that my husband was going into respiratory failure, and that I should probably come to the hospital because he probably wasn't going to make it. So, I grabbed my keys, license and money and made the three hour trip down to NYC with a friend of ours. All I did the whole time was ask God to hold his hand and be there with him until I got there. I kept repeating this like a mantra or something all the way down to the hospital. Well, we finally got there around 3:30 in the morning. We were able to see my husband, who was in a mask forcing oxygen into his body, but still with us! I asked the nurse what happened. She said that another bullae had burst and he had gone into respiratory distress, but sometime after she called me, he just turned around. I know that he started turning around after I started my prayers.

 In the morning, I called my Dad and asked him to come to the hospital and he said he couldn't but after I hung up with him guess what - I got a call from my mom saying that she was right downstairs. I haven't seen or talked to my mom since we got married, 8 years ago. She came upstairs and prayed with my husband and kept him company during the weeks after his surgery, when I couldn't be there (I was still going back and forth from Albany).

 The surgery went amazing. Dr. Ginsberg said that Kenny was going to be like a new man and he is. All those things that gave him trouble before is now so easy. I think only people who have COPD and emphysema understand that small things can be taken for granted like showering with the door shut, tying your shoes, pushing a lawn mower, grocery shopping, walking (even short distances). Daily things that the rest of take for granted can make anyone with this disease short of breath, or as we know it, s.o.b.

 So today, six months later, he's off symbicort and pro- air and is only on spiriva now, no supplemental oxygen at all. Oxygen sats went from 87 before lvrs and now he's registering between 97-100. His pneumo is gone, his inflammation is gone, wheezing at night is gone too. The doctors at Presbyterian said that it should be DECADES before he shows any signs of the bullae coming back. So that's where we are today. He exercises on his stationary bike, goes to the gym and uses his spirometer and we just pray and take it one day at a time. He is definitely a new man and I think this is the best his breathing has been in a long time.