I spent the afternoon at the ER yesterday being treated for an ongoing asthma exacerbation that has not responded well to home treatments. My primary care doctor is out of town and urgent care wasn’t much help last week. As part of the work-up by a good ER doctor, I had a chest CT scan. Ruled out some things they were worried about (PE), but a couple unrelated findings will apparently require further attention:

1. Diffuse hepatic steatosis with fatty sparing in the gallbladder fossa. Sounds scary, but I guess it is not uncommon. I will follow up with my doctor and try to address it with diet and exercise.

2. Multi-nodular thyroid with large (3.6 cm) left thyroid nodule. Had no idea. Will get a referral to endocrinologist for an ultrasound and go from there. Usually not malignant, they say, but likely to require surgery at some point if it continues to grow.

(I have an appointment with an asthma and allergy specialist to get a better handle on the asthma. Will probably also see a pulmonologist. It seems to be getting worse since I had Covid three years ago.)

I have always been active and relatively healthy (other than moderate asthma and high blood pressure that are generally well controlled with meds). Not really overweight. Tennis 3-4 times a week. Mostly healthy diet, but I do have a sweet tooth. My annual physical after I retired last year surprised me with a doubled PSA test result, leading to a prostate cancer diagnosis. After completing radiation and six months of ADT treatment by the end of December, I was looking forward to finally feeling well again and getting back into better tennis shape. I joked that my New Year’s resolution for ‘25 was to avoid doctors because they keep finding things wrong with me! That lasted about as long as most resolutions do (and I actually respect and appreciate good medical professionals.)

I have done some initial research on the interwebs regarding the new issues. I am pretty annoyed right now, but not too worried. All part of getting old, I guess, but not what I wanted to be dealing with after cancer last year.

I would appreciate any helpful comments or suggestions from kind CB physicians, or from patients who have any positive experiences to share.

Thanks.

Go Cougs!