Back at LGH

Well, this is one you haven't heard in quite a few months. On Saturday night, Richard's fever climbed up to 102, so we called the doctor who sent us to the ER at LGH. We went in around midnight. Thankfully, Richard had a room upstairs at 8 Lime by about 3:30 a.m. He has a cough which is progressively getting worse. He has some sort of infection, most likely some kind of repiratory infection (the cough gives it away). They have him on general IV antibiotics for now. They took blood cultures and a culture of brain/spinal fluid from his head port (just because he has infection there before, they want to cover all the bases). We are waiting to see if they grow anything. The chest x-ray was inconclusive because in order to see pneumonia on a chest x-ray, the body has to have white blood cells clustered around the infection. Since Richard has virtually no white blood cells right now, the x-ray isn't accurate. His red blood cells and platelets were also very low, so he got an infusion early this morning after he got the room. He has a nice big room up there and is in a corner suite. This is all disappointing because of it being his last round and all, but again, we just have to deal with it and pray that they find the problem so we can get him on the right antibiotics. The sooner they can do that, the sooner he should be able to come back home.

Well, it's always drama, drama, drama with this guy. Sooner or later our lives will be back to "normal." At least he's feeling okay (besides the cough). He has TV and car magazines to keep him occupied until the cultures or scans show the infection.

Daphne