A 911 Call

And they took dbubley away to the ER.  It is probably cellulitus again, but this time she was so cold, so shaky and feeling so sick I wasn't sure she could drive the wheelchair well enough to get in the van.  Her last bout was in Oct., she was in the hospital and post care facility for a total of 3 weeks.   I'm mad at the germs, I'm frustrated and I'm scared - mostly scared.  stonebender and I will be off to the hospital in a little bit.  I need to get some stuff together and take Pippin outside before I put her in the crate. 
As my mom would say "the problems of the living."


Edited Update: She just called and told me to stay home and come in the morning.  She's on a gurney, so her back is killing her, but they are admitting her (not that either of us had any reason to doubt they would) and I'll go in the morning.  Now if I can get to sleep.

When it rains, it pours

What's better than one medical problem at night - that's right two.  We're having us a twofer night.  After dbubley called from the ER and said to stay home tonight because they were admitting her, stonebender and I headed to bed.  Anyone want to guess what I found on his hip?  You win (and you know us too well) if you answered a large red and hot patch of skin.  Yep, cellulitis hits us twice in one night.  We had a paper prescription for his antibiotic, so off I go to the 24 hour Walgreen's drive-through pharmacy.   Even though no one was in line, it took an hour to fill it because they close for a 30 minute break about 10 minutes after I pulled up.  I drove around because I hate sitting in an almost empty parking lot at 3 am, I feel like a target.  Now I'm home, I need to take a few of my meds and try to get some sleep.  I think I'll sleep in until 6:15 am.  I might get 2 hours of sleep - oh boy, tomorrow/today's going to be fun. 

Edit/Update: Doctors say it's a UTI, gave her iv antibiotics and want to send her home.  I've off to pick her up now. 

dbubley Update

Well, she didn't come home.  In fact she was in the ER from approx. 1:30 AM to 6 PM today.  Most of that time was waiting for a bed in the semi-critical care unit (I forget the actual name.)  On two hours sleep, I called in sick and went to the hospital, where I sat with her from 10 am until 5 pm.  They did not find a cellulitis area and her white blood cell, while elevated is not real high.  The problem is the blood in her urine.  There is alot.  One of her other symptoms has been passing gas from her bladder.  We had an appointment in a few weeks with her regular doctor to talk about this.  One possibility is fistula in the bladder wall that has opened and is leaking urine into her blood and some blood in her bladder.  Her blood has been high in acid and this would explain it.  Her blood pressure was fairly high and there is fluid in her lungs.  At this point, they want to stabilize all her vitals and blood work as much as possible.  To check on the fistula they need a CT scan (I think that's the one - I'm a little fuzzy right now) and there is not a machine big enough for her at this hospital.  They would need to send her to Richmond Kaiser, which isn't too far away.  Unfortunately, if there is an opening they will need to operate to close it.  This all scares the shit out of me and if I wasn't so sleep deprived right now I'd be doing a whole lot more wringing of hands.  As it is, all I can do is feed the dog, stonebender and myself and then go to bed.