Fungus continued: fixable but frustrating

The tale of the fungal nodule continues, getting more confusing each day.

They took me off the IV antifungal Ambisome after one day and put me on another, more kidney-friendly one, Micafungin. They also put me back on an antibiotic, Ceftaz, in case there is some bacterial involvment. 

Meanwhile, since the nodule has gotten quite a bit bigger, they want to be more aggressive about treatment. Probably. Possibly. Yesterday, Dr. Jacobson, the attending in charge of my daily-care team, and Heidi, one of the PAs, said someone from thoracic surgery would come in yesterday and tell me the plan. Nobody came, except for a doctor from Infectious Diseases (ID) who echoed that thoracic would tell me my options.

A young doctor from thoracic showed up today and said these were my options: needle biopsy, bronchoscopy and, last resort, surgery (which I had six years ago and which has an agonizing recovery period.) Also, I need platelets (I'm down to 6) but Heidi had said they were going to hold off in case I need them in advance of a procedure. The doctor from thoracic said they weren't doing anything that fast and that I should get my platelets. And she said possibly they might do nothing other than check if the new anti-fungal is working.

Heidi came in and said no, they were going to hold the platelets, at least until they expire on Sunday or if I start actively bleeding. She basically said to ignore the young doctor from thoracic, who was probably just a resident or a fellow doing advance work. About half an hour later, the doctor from thoracic came back in and said she had looked at the film and hadn't realized how large the mass had grown, so they should probably proceed at least with the needle biopsy, maybe even tomorrow. She reiterated that I should get the platelets. At this point, I'm not getting them today. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

"Don't lose sleep over this," she said in conclusion.

I already asked a couple of doctors if they thought it was lung cancer, and got a decisive no.

So it's fixable but frustrating. I was hoping to get some distance, and here I am back in the hospital, with the world passing by.

But hey, I'm here, and in many ways I'm getting stronger every day. So go figure. I hope to at least find out the plan tomorrow, because the back-and-forth makes it all worse.