She Got Sick Fast

She went from okay to really not okay in a matter of a few minutes.  The peaceful evening then went to eventful.  The suddenness was troublesome and that part will stay with me for a while.

Marty does this thing that’s really hard to describe.  She yawns, then stretches, then her body sort of contracts to one side and she kind of moans.  It’s like her body is out of her control for just a few seconds.  

I’ve seen this several times and every time I’ve seen her do this she’s been sick, fighting an infection and on the verge of sepsis. 

We were in the living room, she in her chair, me in mine and I heard her yawn and moan just a bit and I saw her body contract to one side.  I knew then, just from that small little thing, that out of control body movement, that our peaceful evening of The Big Bang Theory was done.

Marty had been fine all day.  We had done the regular things; there were no signs of anything.  We ate supper, she ate, sausage and pasta and peppers, it was really good.

When she started the whole body contracting thing I went and got Erica our caregiver thinking let’s do the bath give her something to drink, start antibiotics and let her go to bed.  We didn’t make the bed, or the drink, or the antibiotic.  Marty threw up, a bad sign and a clear ticket to Providence ER; we don’t do puking with Marty, or this funny body thing.

On the way to the ER, all  of about 5 minutes,  I’m thinking how do I explain to the registration desk and the triage nurse that I know my brittle, two times stroke wife is ER level sick.  How do I describe the whole body contracting, moaning, moving to one side in a way that helps them know that I, Marty’s Husband, know we are dealing with a really sick woman and not someone who has a stomach bug and is using the ER as their primary source of care?  

Maybe you embellish a bit?  Maybe you describe things in a way that accentuates the weirdness of the loss of control of her body…..I think…..let’s go with “maybe she’s having small seizures”. 

It worked and we got to triage in about 10 minutes and Marty took over from there…..her oxygen levels were really low…..that got us a priority ticket back to an ER room, that and a text to Great and Wise who generously alerted the charge nurse about us.

We got back to the ER room and I once again described Marty’s symptoms, first to the nurse and then to the ER doctor.  I’m generally an excellent communicator but Marty’s spasm thing is really hard to describe.  As I’m explaining Marty’s body starts to contract and pull to one side, just as I was trying to describe the symptoms. The doctor looked at Marty and said, “Yeah, it could be a seizure, but she doesn’t seem to lose consciousness.”

I said, “No, I really don’t think it’s a seizure, I think she has a bad infection.  I’ve seen her do this before and it’s always a sign of a bad infection.”

He looked at me with a little bit of skepticism and said he immediately order all of the appropriate tests and figure out what’s happening.

It took longer than usual because Marty was already dehydrated and they struggled to start an IV and get blood.  Eventually blood was drawn, urine obtained, tests were done and sure enough her urine lit up the test strips.  The doctor returned looked at the white count from the blood test and said, “You sure do know your wife.”

I think, “Duh”…..they don’t give doctorates of Marty to just anyone.

We moved to a room about 3 a.m. on Friday morning and they are treating the kidney infection with big time antibiotics.  Marty has been, Marty still is pretty sick.  In case you don’t know, urinary tract infections are bad and can make you very sick.  That’s where we are.

Marty has not made enough progress for us to be home for the Super Bowl.  She is not puking, she is not doing the weird stretching contracting thing but she is still running fever from time to time and doesn’t feel great.  Great and Wise won’t let us go yet.   Consequently, Super Bowl party in room 304.