Yesterday we got up and were going to the lake to see the almost completed landscaping at our lake house on Richland-Chambers. Instead we decided to take a tour of the hospital via the emergency room. Nothing new, same old, same old. This is just a reminder of the whole take things on a day-to-day basis.
Marty awoke in pretty good spirits yesterday. She had not slept great during the night, but par for the course. Soon after dressing, she got sick to her stomach and vomited. Now, throwing up is a drag for everyone involved. We are all familiar with the old adage, don't make me smell it or I'll throw up too. It's just gross, for everyone. What compounds this nasty stuff for Marty is the danger of aspiration, causing pneumonia. It's also a sign for Marty. A sign that almost always indicates an underlying illness.
The hard part is making a decision what to do. For us, there are really three options: do nothing (yeah right, way too much anxiety involved), go see her family practice Doc, Tim Martindale (yes they will see us within an hour), or go to the emergency room (expensive and just too many sick people). I really hate making this decision. All of the options suck in their own way.
We chose ER simply because this is the best way to get the most information, the fastest. But, you have to wait longer, you have to hang with sick people and it takes longer (did I say that twice). Actually, we got in very quickly. Visits with nurses, billing, and doctor were done and then x-rays and blood tests followed. Dr. Pepper, not a drink but the ER Doc, consulted with Dr. Martindale and came in to say, basically everything was okey dokey........... except Marty's white count had gone from 12,000 to 16,000 in the last week (10,000 is normal, anything above generally indicates an infection of some sort)all the while being on an antibiotic called Cefdinir, which has worked well in the past.
Marty awoke in pretty good spirits yesterday. She had not slept great during the night, but par for the course. Soon after dressing, she got sick to her stomach and vomited. Now, throwing up is a drag for everyone involved. We are all familiar with the old adage, don't make me smell it or I'll throw up too. It's just gross, for everyone. What compounds this nasty stuff for Marty is the danger of aspiration, causing pneumonia. It's also a sign for Marty. A sign that almost always indicates an underlying illness.
The hard part is making a decision what to do. For us, there are really three options: do nothing (yeah right, way too much anxiety involved), go see her family practice Doc, Tim Martindale (yes they will see us within an hour), or go to the emergency room (expensive and just too many sick people). I really hate making this decision. All of the options suck in their own way.
We chose ER simply because this is the best way to get the most information, the fastest. But, you have to wait longer, you have to hang with sick people and it takes longer (did I say that twice). Actually, we got in very quickly. Visits with nurses, billing, and doctor were done and then x-rays and blood tests followed. Dr. Pepper, not a drink but the ER Doc, consulted with Dr. Martindale and came in to say, basically everything was okey dokey........... except Marty's white count had gone from 12,000 to 16,000 in the last week (10,000 is normal, anything above generally indicates an infection of some sort)all the while being on an antibiotic called Cefdinir, which has worked well in the past.
So the diagnosis is sick, but not too sick. Infected, but we don't know how much or really where the infection is located, probably upper respiratory, thus the reason medical science is also an art. The next decision is to go home, treat at home or move to the hospital. I would always choose home, unless there are real clinical reasons to stay. The hospital is full of sick people, duh, and they have sick germs, double duh, and we don't need anymore germs. This time, it just felt like we needed to be more aggressive with the antibiotic treatment. We had information from last week that indicated a Pseudomonis A(I can't say it so I really can't spell it) infection. We had information on what specific antibiotics to use, so that's what we did. We checked into the hospital yesterday afternoon.
Marty started the new antibiotic yesterday evening. It appears the new medicine is doing the trick as her white count went from 16k to 8k very quickly. Good choice this time Larry, even if I do say so myself.
Next steps are next steps. We get there when we get there. The great and wise Dr. Martindale is pleased with all the numbers, Marty is resting comfortably, Renae and I are really bored and we will wait and see what comes next.
I have to say I am haunted by the decisions, deciding what steps to take or even if we need to take steps. In our family Marty was the one who always decided when doctors or hospitals needed to be involved. I really miss that.
1 comment:
Hang in there! Those decisions sound very difficult. When you two are up for company of if you need anything before then, let me know and I'll be there!
Sandi Horton
Post a Comment