January 7, 2009

Medical update from “Nurse” Melanie
January 7, 2009

We hope everyone had great holidays and a very Happy New Year. Jim and I had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by lots of family and friends.

Very early Sunday, December 28th Jim was having difficulty breathing, a temperature of 100.4° F, and very thick secretions. We tried all the usual treatments but he was lethargic and I knew something was not right. I called our good friends the Juhren’s at 5:30a.m. and asked if they would help me get him to the hospital.

The one good thing about being on a ventilator is when you enter the emergency room you are taken to a doctor ASAP. They did the usual tests, ask the usual questions and determined he had an infection somewhere. The emergency room doctor was top notch and started Jim immediately on the “big gun” antibiotics.

Jim was admitted to the hospital and we were moved to the 4th floor, PCU. Our “home away from home.” Fortunately, Evelyn was our nurse (she was one of the nurses who cared for Jim in October) and Amy “Donald Trump” was the Charge Nurse. They greeted us with warm affection and although glad to see us they were sorry it had to be in the hospital.

Dr. “Midnight” Silver, our hero, determined Jim had pneumonia and needed to stay for 4-5 days to get IV antibiotics. On Monday afternoon (I had just left to go home after 28 or so hours) and Jim had a mucous plug and went into respiratory distress. They moved him to ICU so he could be monitored more closely. He stayed in ICU until Wednesday night (they moved us at 10:00pm). We were happy because he couldn’t go home if he was in ICU.

We wanted to be released on New Year’s Eve Day but ole’ Doc Midnight said no. We had a great New Year’s Eve with lots of friends and Champagne!! Jim was released, reluctantly, by Dr. Silver and we came home New Year’s Day. Jim is doing well at home. We have been fighting bronchitis/pneumonia since Jim left the hospital in October. I think he needed one more heavy duty round of medications to get ride of it and he did.

The doctors tried to get Jim off the ventilator during the day and he did great in the hospital lying in bed, doing nothing. However, being home and being active does not allow him to breath on his own. But that’s ok, that is why we have a ventilator!

Jim has a follow-up appointment tomorrow; this should tell us a lot about his health and what we can do to avoid these hospital stays. Please continue praying for us, we feel them and God hears them.

Melanie