When Life Gives You Lemons...

I've been a bit out of sorts for a minute. I got this agonizing pain in my shoulder on Christmas Day that was so bad that I could barely hold my eyes open. My mom was here for the holidays and she and my husband were really concerned. My mother in law took me to an emergency care doctor in the town where they live. It seemed to be a pinched nerve somewhere between my neck and shoulder. They put me on hella-strong pain meds (morphine) and made an appointment for an MRI. Well, with socialized medicine, you might have to wait a little bit for that appointment, but the cost is minimal to nothing. A few weeks ago I had the MRI done but as the severe pain began to subside I began struggling to breathe. It felt as though something was stopping me from taking in deep breaths. Having a busy life, we try to ignore when we're not feeling well and push through. I had a tour coming up so I decided to contact my physician. He listened to my labored breathing and we both assumed that I had a respiratory infection, which is something that frequently plagues my life due to my immune deficiency. He put me on antibiotics and I left for my tour. 2 weeks later, I was still having severe breathing difficulties and a strange full, pressing feeling under my right ribs. I had to go out on another tour. While walking through the airport, not in any rush, I felt totally out of breath as if I had been running full speed. I had to stop and take breaks on a very short walk and was dizzy and seeing little flashes of light. I knew then that something was really wrong and I had to get it checked out. I began my concert tour and I noticed that I was struggling to sing and talk to the audience in between songs. The band also noticed and all of us we're concerned at that point. They wanted to take me to the emergency in the town where we were but I told them I could wait until I got back home. The tour was difficult in this condition and singing was hard, hard work. Sleeping was also an issue. I could not get comfortable and I had to sleep sitting up because to lie down flat made me feel as if I were drowning and fighting for air. I could not sleep longer than 4 to 5 hours. When I returned home my husband was extremely concerned and told me that we should go to see the emergency doctor. We went in and I was given blood tests and an EKG. They could see that I was struggling to breathe and my blood pressure was elevated due to the stress of not being able to breathe. They couldn't find any infection from the blood tests, so it ruled out a respiratory infection or pneumonia. The doctor listened to my breathing and then tapped along my back on both sides to listen to how my lungs sounded. He looked concerned and decided to send me for a chest X-ray. He got the chest X-ray back and was more concerned. When he tapped on my back he could hear that something wasn't sounding like it should on my right side. The X-ray showed the same. It appeared that something was compressing my right lung and liver. He filled out paperwork and made some calls. He had me admitted to the hospital. The Surgical and Pulmonary specialists looked at all of the test results and decided I should go into the Pulmonary Ward to further investigate what was going on. One of the first tests was to make sure I didn't have a pulmonary embolism. This was checked and ruled out. They said they wanted to do an MRI and a CT Scan. I really hate MRIs, so I mentioned to them I just had one. They were very curious as to why. I explained about my shoulder experience during Christmas. My doctor, Dr. Liaan, looked as if a light bulb had come on inside his head. I also informed him that I had a chest X-ray done in November 2011 because of breathing problems. He asked his intern, Dr. Godø to get those X-rays and the results of the MRI so he could look at all of them together. After the CT Scan he brought me into a room where there was a table and a huge machine. It was something like a living X-ray machine. He could move it over my chest and see inside on two large monitors. He showed me my left side and asked me to take a quick breath by sniffing in through my nose. I could see my diaphram pull up, as it should. He moved the machine over my right chest area and I could see that something had things "squished" up. He told me to do the same, take a quick breath. I did. Nothing happened on that side. Nothing. He told me to do it again. Same thing, nothing. He said, "Just as I thought." I asked him what was going on. He told me that the right hemisphere of my diaphragm was paralyzed and compressing my right lung and "relocating" my liver. So, I asked him, how do we fix this. He said, "We can't." We can't. One of the most important organs to a singer, after vocal chords is the diaphragm. To hear , we can't fix this, made me slip into this surreal, slow motion moment. I couldn't believe it and inside of my head felt hot. I looked at him and said, "You do know that I'm a singer, right? As a profession?" he said, "Yes I do. That's why we're going to figure out what's caused this and what kind of treatment we can provide to make this easier." This, of course, did not cool the heat and anguish inside my brain. He told me he was sending me back to my room and then shortly I would be seeing a neurologist and having a lumbar puncture to rule out Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease can also cause some of these symptoms. (tests came back. I wasn't bitten by a tick!)

I was wheeled into the neurology department and taken into the office of a lively, smiling female doctor who shook my hand enthusiastically and said she had heard me sing with Voxing at Teatrefabrikken in Ålesund and loved the show. I had a halfway smile when I said thank you. She registered my concern. She said, "I know this is very difficult for you but we will do everything we can to make your life and your singing a bit easier than it is now." She said that the trouble I was having with my shoulder was brachial nevritt (in english, brachial neuritis). It is the inflammation or damage to the phrenic nerve that presents itself after trauma, some vaccinations or work related injury, such as with farmers or construction workers and in rare cases it's idiopathic, which is basically doctor talk for unknown. Mine was Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis. In 2 to 5% of the cases, difficulty breathing presents itself and can cause diaphragmatic paralysis. I was in that small percentage. Ooooooh, lucky me!! The doctor told me that the paralysis cannot be be reversed, but the left lung would compensate for the compressed right side in time and my liver being "relocated" would also become less of a discomfort and would not affect its function. One promising thing, she was surprised that I was still able to sing with the use of only one hemisphere of my diaphragm functioning. I told her that it was extremely difficult but I was able to do it. She said this was actually, in my favor. It may be possible to electronically stimulate the left hemisphere along with me singing to get the left side to make up for approximately 25-40% of the right side. The weakness in my shoulder will get better with time and therapy between 6-24 months.

This is very promising news but I have a long difficult road trying to recover from this. After the cancer and removal of my thyroid I completely lost my singing voice and it took me almost 8 years to learn how to sing with the new voice and become comfortable with the voice I now have. Now, I'm having to learn how to sing again at 43 years old. It's a difficult road but I think with the help of friends and family, I'm making the journey.

Sometimes, when life gives you lemons, add a shot of vodka and tonic and toast to all things better!!!


I wish you, enough

Teedy...out!


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