Day 20 brings more fevers

Morning rounds with Dr. Jaeger-Meister Meister-Jaeger,
Erin and Amit

 Forgive me, O Gentle Reader, for failing to blog the last two days.  I just haven't had time to put my laptop atop my lap and write. 

Heidi has a fever, though that's not my excuse for failing to blog.  It doesn't require any extra care from me.  I am not excluded from her room.  All the staff who enter must gown up (see photo at left).  That is to protect other patients from Heidi's new communicable disease.  She has a Clostridium dificile infection which is giving her collitis.  She isn't a risk to people who are healthy and don't bathe, wash and poop in the Ganges river.  But other patients here are at risk.  Unfortunately, it's one of those bugs that is not uncommon in hospitals and not uncommon in someone whose normal flora is being suppressed by high-power antibiotics.  This is why most people eat yogurt when they are on antibiotics—it helps repopulate the gut with the good guys.  Heidi's gut has been depleted of the good guys so the bad guys, like C. dificile can move in. 

The best way to get well

She also has a rash.  It started on her back, but now it's spread to the rest of her body.  They tried benedryl, but it didn't help and just made her aggitated.  Now she's on Claritin, but it doesn't seem to be helping either. 

They finally found what it takes to make Heidi lose her upbeat attitude.  The formula for this includes fever, rash and making her hair fall out.  Oh, when it falls out, it doesn't do so nicely.  It doesn't fall out smoothly or evenly.  Her hair is dry and matted much of the time, partly because she is sweating from the fever. 

Her temperature was 105F when I arrived here at noon.  Now it is a little lower.  She is on three different IV antibiotics each given three times a day so she's hooked up to the pole (Javier) much of the time.

Let's see, I told about the hair, the rash and the fever.  What am I missing?  Oh yeah, how about a midnight room change?  Last night the plumbing started leaking in her bathroom.  It ran all the way across the floor and out the door to her room.  So the staff gowned up and started collecting her and her things and pulled them out into the hall.  They didn't have a room immediately available, so she had to wait in the hall until another patient who could be moved to another floor was moved out.  Then Heidi and her things were reassembled in her new room.  Room 3707, phone number 694-3153.

Room 3714 in quarantine lockdown

Her new room doesn't have a Lion King mural; it has no mural at all.  It also has almost no view.  Definitely a downgrade.  All of this plus having her sleep interrupted more than usual made her really groggy this morning.  She wouldn't even drink the Starbucks soy latte her brother brought this morning.  Today involves a lot of napping.  Or is it knapping?  I think her hair is knapping; she is napping.

On the plus side, it was nice to see Toby & Laura, who flew over from Orange County.  Alex, Lis & family drove down from Flagstaff, but unfortunately every time they offered to visit Heidi wasn't in a receptive mood.  That's okay, I'm glad she is learning how to say no when needed.

Good news.  It takes me so long to write that her temperature is now below 101F.  The nurses were threatening to pack her armpits with ice.  All it took was that threat to get her to cool down.  I'm going to remember that one for later.  "Heidi, if you don't put the toilet seat up afterward, I'm going to pack your armpits with ice."  Yeah, that's gonna work.