My Sarcoidosis doctor called with the results of my chest x-ray last night and my lungs are unchanged. This, like my echocardiogram, is very good news. It means that sarcoidosis may not be active after all!
Then what’s causing me to have shortness of breath? The last thing on my condition list – pulmonary hypertension.
I will have a six minute walk test in two weeks to determine my oxygen levels during exertion. I know from experience that the results of that test are usually drastic. My O2 levels drop from the nineties to the seventies after about two or three minutes, and the test is stopped. I am yet to actually walk an entire six minutes.
Where do we go from here? I’m not sure. Probably raise my dosage on my pulmonary hypertension medication, Tracleer (US $6,000/month). I hope that they don’t want to do another right heart catheterization! I’ll wait and see.
Also, my insurance denied my new prescription for a steroid inhaler. Apparently it’s $250.00 a bottle and they think I should try Advair. Really?! Are they my doctors now, diagnosing and medicating me. Puh-leeez!
Filed under: COPD, Heart Failure, Pulmonary hypertension, Sarcoidosis Tagged: | Bosentan, Heart Failure, life, Pulmonary Hypertension, Sarcoidosis, X-rays
