Escape, Part Tres

We got paroled this morning and drove home this afternoon.  As I've said many times, the staff at UMC is wonderful (so wonderful even that I'm using words like wonderful).  All except Dr. Stickinthemud, who gave us too many restrictions. 

No matter, being home is good. 

Funny story this morning, though.  The team of doctors came in on their rounds, which is something they are want to do every morning.  I was working on my work laptop and Heidi was enjoying her Eggamuffin from BlandRUs, the hospital food service.  The doctors asked what we thought about going home today, immediately invoking a volley of oh yay's.  I don't need to tell you who released the oh yay's.  But I'll give you a hint:  I took a pause and replied, "Do you ever have people who say they do not want to leave?"  The surprising answer from the good Doctors was, "actually, yes, some people do want to stay here for the reliable food and steady care."  Despite the reliability of BlandRUs, it didn't require more than a double-take to acknowledge going home was the obvious choice, Stickinthemud restrictions notwithstanding.

On the road outta Feverville

Still stuck in the hospital, but at least we left Stuck-in-bed city and we're back to the land of smiles and photo ops.  Slight fever last night, but hopefully those are in the past.  Blood counts are still in the toilet, but hopefully they are climbing.  No escape date set yet, but hopefully in a few days.

Not a lot else to report.  But I wanted to post again just to report that Heidi is much better than on Sunday when I last posted. 

We have our Consultation meeting in Seattle tentatively set for Friday, Dec 17.  As I wrote previously, there is no certainty when Heidi will be released but it seems likely to be well before the end of next week.

Also new is that my older bro Bruce is the latest to give a cheek swab to the Bone Marrow Registry.  For the rest of you, there's no reason to delay.  Even though Heidi has a match in her brother, you can still help others.  Although it's safer for people like Bruce and me because of the half-Armenian incompatibility thing.

I just came across this article about someone who just joined the registry became an instant hero.  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=270115.  This could be you.

Still sick

Drum roll, please . . . . . . . . . . the bacterium du jour causing all the nastiness is . . . . . . . Klebsiella.  I can neither confirm nor deny whether any of my prognostications from yesterday are correct.  No matter.  It is not too vile to be named.  It's been named and doesn't even sound the least bit latin.  They're hitting it with Cefapime—the same antibiotic she's gotten for every other fever, infection and ingrown toenail so far.  Not latin, not vile, and doesn't even need a magic wand to battle it.  Oh well.

They moved her back down to 3NW to room 3724.  These rooms are better suited for neutropenic patients.  The one on 5E was only a stopgap.  At least she is among friends again.

There's a difference between being in the hospital to prevent being sick and being in the hospital because you are sick.  Heidi was confined to her quarters the first two trips because she needed the aseptic environment, to prevent picking up something from the cruel world.  On this trip the world has already inflicted its cruelty and she is here to recover.  The first two trips she used used expressions like "keen" and "skippy" and "oh yay."  This trip she sleeps a lot.  The first two trips there were plenty of photo ops.  This trip there are few.

Invasion of the gram negative rods

The Proper way to Watch Football at the Hospital

Heidi was a little sick Thursday night, really sick yesterday, but when I called her this morning, she said, "better."  For those of you who are Monty Python Meaning of Life fans, the word better is always followed by better get a bucket.  Fortunately all of Heidi's bucket work finished yesterday.

They checked all the fluids.  All tests came back negative except the blood culture, which was positive for gram negative rods.  Further tests are needed to figure out which little bugger it is.  I'm guessing a bacilli or maybe something with flagella.  Hopefully one of those because that's about the limit of my bacterial anatomy vocabulary.  If not those I'll bet it's something with only a latin name, something so vile it is only written in italics.  It will be known as it who cannot be named in english or written in straight letters.

The whole point of this nonsense is that they have specific antibiotics for specific blood-borne buggies.  In the meantime she's on the basic Cefepime, which she's had many times before.  By tomorrow or maybe Monday they should have some specialty latin-named antibiotic.  That one will be named, but surely will have so many letters and syllables that it should not be attempted with a beer-infused tongue.

Our Consultation trip to Seattle on Monday is surely off.  Maybe it will get postponed for one week.  Not sure what this will do to the start of treatment.  They don't seem too well equipped to accommodate the limitations of neutropenic people and the difficulty of scheduling travel. 

Back in the hospital again

Yeah, what the title says.  Listless yesterday, fever this morning, hospital today.  I guess that sums it up.  I shouldn't have been surprised—the docs said her counts would continue to drop for two weeks, which was yesterday.  So they did.  All plans on hold.

University Med Ctr
Wing 5E, Room 5626
694-3514