Wednesday, October 8, 2008

a condition for people like me

Last night I learned about a condition where the risk factor is being a skinny white male--they actually said I fit the textbook description. I know, I know, you're thinking racism, sexism, that kind of thing. Those are true, also (though I don't know how skinny factors into that). Actually this time I'm talking about "bleb disease," which can lead to spontaneous pneumothorax. Which is what happened Saturday, though I didn't get it checked out until yesterday. I went to a clinic to check out a chest pain I'd been having, and they discovered that I had a slightly collapsed lung--so they sent me to the ER. Judging from symptoms I described from Saturday, it was probably more severely collapsed but I was able to recover. Judging from symptoms I've had in the past, since 6th grade, it's probably happened before but I never saw a doctor about it. Which means, according to the doctor, I probably have this bleb disease thing (not glamorous-sounding, I know, but quite descriptive). The thing is, very simply, a few of the little air sacs in my lungs are probably enlarged and weakened for unknown reasons, sort of like a blister only filled with are (those are blebs). And for equally unknown reasons, these blebs occasionally burst, allowing air to seep from the lung into the lining that surrounds the lungs. Depending on air pressure, it can cause the lung not to inflate properly. If you've seen the move Three Kings, you know what I'm talking about, though with a bullet wound it's obviously a lot more serious. Luckily for me, the air pressure wasn't a problem on Saturday, and I have a healthy set of lungs--so my lung recovered fairly well.
At any rate, I have some more appointments today, but things are fine. I'm thinking of starting a club of unfortunately-named illnesses. We have a friend who was diagnosed with sagging brain syndrome, which is actually a very serious condition, despite the funny-sounding name. Any other ideas about unfortunately-named illnesses? Post them in comments.

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