I cringe when I see a swan.

Almost two weeks ago I had another right heart catheterization. Other than some minor pain and a nasty rash breaking out all over my neck (probably from the chemical prep), I got through it fine without sedatives. And, if I have to find something good to say... I will admit, it was better than January's right heart catheterization.

In January, the Swan-Ganz catheter was left in my neck for several days. Now I cringe any time I see a swan, or even hear the word swan, despite it being named after the doctors that invented it. I've included a photo of that nasty device here. It is through a large yellow trumpet-like part that goes in the neck's jugular vein (and is not pictured) that several lumens, each with a different function, are threaded. The main yellow line you see, partly covered by a plastic sheath, is the line that ran from my neck, down the vein, through my heart, and up through my pulmonary artery. That is the line remained inside my heart for several days when I was in the MICU. All the rest of those tubes and such hung to the side of my neck.

The test showed that my pulmonary pressures were down a bit. This proved the medicines have helped to relax my heart. However, the following week I had additional pulmonary testing that revealed my breathing is getting worse. It's harder for me to breathe and my lungs are not doing their job getting enough oxygen into my blood. But, this is the expected course of the PVOD and was not a surprise.

What was a surprise, however, is that the doctors have run across a reason for additional testing. My heart sank. I had hoped we were done and I would be officially listed. They ran some more lab-work while I was there and I'm expecting to go back in a couple weeks for additional testing. I won't go into details now, but let's hope it's just a little hurdle.