— March 28 Monday, after speaking with the doctor’s office twice the week before, I sent them word that I was now ready to do whatever to get to feeling better. It was obvious I would not make it until my Jackson appointment the 7th of April. I was instructed to come to the hospital for direct admit, which we did, Terry coming home from work to carry me over there.
An hour + drive to the hospital and a 2 hour wait and finally I was being wheeled to a room. Another hour went by, or so it seemed before even a tech came in to do anything with me. My doctor almost beat the nurses in..they had just come in to attempt an IV when he peeked his little face around the door. The nurses failed with the IV, I had to have drip started so they could begin IV antibiotic, so Doc calls one of his NP and he comes and attempts to insert a Pic Line. Had I not been such a difficult patient he might would have succeeded, but 3 attempts to run that wire into the vein and 3 fails, he gave up. Instead he inserted it in one of my neck veins for the night; assuring me that Radiology would be able to succeed the next morning because they could watch the path of the wire on their monitor-something the NP didn’t have.
March 29, Tuesday Before breakfast Radiology came for me to insert the Pic line. Wow, they didn’t even get me up out of bed, but rolled me bed and all down stairs. Nice doc/radiologist did the procedure, talking the whole time. He knew some folks from Tylertown, he shared some childhood memories. Over all a nice fellow. At one point he said, “Now why did it do that” and I thought, “Oh no”, but then he says—“Got it” and I knew we were home free!!!!
Finally. I saw infectious disease doc that is here in Hattiesburg, a Dr. Lin/Lynn?? He changed meds, and told Terry and I some disturbing news. This is not curable. We can only hope to control it. Acceptance is part of our program. I cant change it. Can’t fix it. So acceptance is best route. Not to say I don’t whine sometimes. But I’ve earned that don’t ya think? The site is tender and hurts some but I’m so tiny it’s to be expected. I’ve dropped down to about 93 from 98 since I’ve been sick. Trying to up protein per doc orders. I have moments I get scared and worry bout Ana and want to cry but then I remind myself it’s all in Gods hands and He will take care of us.
March 30, 31==Wednesday and Thursday went by without a hitch. Breathing treatments 4X daily, one of them at midnight; 1 med bag for 30”, another med bad for an hour, and in between they unhooked me making it nice to bath, potty, walk a little walk down the hall. The Sunday school class sent me an Easter basket filled with candy and chips; Rita sent me a beautiful basket of flowers and Pat came to visit on Tuesday and brought me a Grace sign..since we both needed God’s healing grace as she was going in on Wednesday for a knee replacement.
April 1, Friday, Finally Doc’s associate (Doc was off all week) came in around 4 and released me. I would go home with the pic line and 1 antibiotic, Amikacin to take once every 24 hours. Home health would come teach the family how to administer it.
April 2, Saturday, Brenda came down, Stacie came down, Ana did laundry and such, Terry mowed. Sandy brought some delicious broccoli soup and a love offering, John and Dana stopped by with sandwichs, Later on Kristy, the home health nurse came—back when she first began with HH, she was grandma’s nurse. She taught them how to hook the med-it’s easy, has it’s own pump in the plastic vial it comes in, she draws blood a couple times a week, and life should begin a normal flow once again and I should start feeling better soon. I do have to take oral antibiotic also, Augmentin, which is rough on the tummy, but with Prevacid and such and Probiotics, I will try it.
Monday, April 4 Email Doc’s nurse asking questions about some medications I normally take, interaction with my Amikacin and should I continue to take the Tobramycin (inhaled antibiotic). I was advised it should be ok to add the Tobramycin to the regime, so that evening I took my Augmentin about 30 minutes before or after (don’t recall) the Amikacin, which was taken around 5. No problems. Around 7 I decided I would do the Tobramycin treatment, take my shower and be ready for the program I like to watch on Monday night….so I did. I had the normal breathlessness after bathing, so sat on the toilet seat and rested a few before drying off, brushing teeth and dressing. I then came to the couch and sat down. The breathing lightened up a bit but not much and as I sat here it seemed to get worse-like I simply couldn’t catch my breath. Around 8 I got up and took an Albuterol treatment hoping that would open things up-but if anything things got worse.
Ana came in around 9 and she told me to contact the nurse, so I did who advised me to go to the local ER. I called Terry, who was helping Bruce and Charles with cows and pigs, he finally got here and off we went, arriving at ER about 9:30. They did NOT get in any rush for sure. Kristy met us there and was my spokesperson since she knew so much about my condition. She was very irritated at they nonchalant manner in which they lounged around on their cell phones while I struggled to breathe and there was NO one in the waiting room. Finally I get in back, hooked up on O2 and eventually Dr. Bullock comes in. He listens, he listens some more. He orders a breathing treatment. He says there is no air moving in one side and virtually none in the other side. After a while he comes back and wants to send me to H’burg. Said he would feel much better if my Doc checked me out to be sure it wasn’t what I thought it was and told them it was—a reaction between Amikacin and Tobramycin.
Ok, so can Terry take me. No, got to have the O2. Have to go in the ambulance.
1 ½ hours later the ambulance arrives and thus begins one of the most miserable rides in the world. Hard bed/table, no pillow, screaming headache, squeaky bumpy ride. Ugh. Oh well, it is what it is. Arrived in H’burg around 1, took about 30 minutes to get into a cubicle. Thank goodness I brought a cup of ice with me from T-town or I’d have literally dried up. They wouldn’t/couldn’t give me anything, not even a drink of water until a doc saw me and it was about 6 before he came in. A Dr. Patterson was his name. Likeable fellow, ordered a breathing treatment and finally something for my headache which took another half hour to arrive. Glad I wasn’t dying.
Needless to say, even Dr. Patterson didn’t know what to do with, so he says he will call one of the Pulmunary docs and in about an hour in comes my Doc. We talked, I told him what happened. He didn’t say it was, who knew for sure without running another trial and I wasn’t up for that, but he did say just in case, then let’s not do Tobramcin again. No problem for sure..He talked me into staying over night promising to let me come on Wednesday morning, which he did. When the 12 hour span for Tobramycin rolled around, my breathing returned to normal and the headache literally disappeared and even Tylenol doesn’t do that. I KNOW it was the Tobramycin.
Ya see, I’m allergic to a lot of ‘mycin type antibiotics and we were simply trying this one until I could see the doc in Jackson. When I saw her she said Tobramycin and Amikacin were in the same family, so my little non-medical brain says it was too much of a good ‘mycinthing and it backfired. 😀
April 7, Thursday We got up at 5:30 and left here at 5:45 heading to Jackson. We finally found the place, and while Terry parked I went in to find the Suite I needed. Oh, I wish I had gotten a wheel chair, but I made it. Saw the doc shortly after signing in…had lost another few pounds. She asked lots of questions, listened to my chest, looked in all my upper crevices and said she wanted to add another antibiotic because this is usually best treated with 2 meds given IV and an oral one.. As we left she asked me who convinced me to put all these holes in my ears and I just laughed and said, “Oh, I’ve always had a little bit of wild side.”
We went through Brookhaven so we could get some lunch, then stopped by WalMart where I learned to drive the electric cart; being too weak to walk I had to do something. It was too warm to just sit in the car. Then home.
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Klara's Knick-Knactory 