I’m currently scheduled for some specialists for the issue, but I thought maybe I could talk to people on here about it.
I injured my neck about 10 days ago, something fell off a shelf and hit me a bit under my Adam’s apple. I didn’t notice anything right away and felt alright.
Then the next day my neck was a bit sore and swollen and I gave a ring to a nurse hotline from my insurance and they said that it was more than likely fine and to go to the hospital if it doesn’t improve after 48 hours after it happened. So I ended up going to the hospital the following night when my neck was feeling worse and I was walking around with my head cocked at an angle. They checked to see if my vein on the side that was hit was working with an ultrasound after the Dr couldn’t feel anything through the swelling. They gave me a lidocaine patch some anti-inflammatories and sent me on my way.
Then went I woke up 7 days after I was feeling pain all the way up the whole side of my neck all the way up to my ear and I had several fits of gasping for air. I went to the hospital again over the whole difficulty breathing thing and they did a CT and saw that my trachea was fractured and had signs of healing. So they gave me steroids and some pepcid and sent me on my way.
The following day I had several fits of difficulty breathing where I was gasping for air while the part of my neck that got hit was feeling a good deal of pain.
I’ve gone to my PCP and he gave me a referral for a gastroenterologist and an ENT. Both of which I’ll be waiting about a month or so to see.
My concern is that since the problems breathing it’s been happening occasionally when I move and especially if I lie down or get up from lying down and it feels like I’m being choked constantly.
Idk I appreciate any thoughts or feedback or anything like that.
Call the ENT’s office and tell them what’s going on. Ask if there is a sooner appointment. Calling and advocating for yourself usually gets you in sooner than relying on an online scheduler or just keeping the appointment your GP’s office set for you. In the worst case scenario you’re still in the same position you are currently in.
My gp set me up with an ENT that wasn’t available until May, and the hospital had a half complete referral that wasn’t showing up in the office they were referring me to’s system. That didn’t matter anyway because neither one of those doctors was covered by my insurance.
When I told my GP they set up a different appointment at a facility that is pretty much only ENTs and when I was talking to their office to get it set up I asked them if they had a different doctor available sooner so I’m being seen a week sooner than I would otherwise but that’s about the best I can do.
I’m not sure what the problem is, I keep gasping but my oxygen levels don’t drop. Whatever is going on they’re not really going to treat it as urgent unless my oxygen levels drop