I got up at 5:30 feeling OK and didn't put any more thought into it. I drank my coffee ate breakfast and headed to Harlingen.
I went early because I wanted to walk the park and see which migrant birds I could see before work. I saw a couple of warblers but that was it. The mosquito's were voracious so I loaded up on OFF when I got back to the truck.
We put in a fairly strenuous 3 hours work and I was still feeling fine. Near the end Christina Barbara and I walked the path going down the center of the park as I had walked it earlier and I mentioned that it was extremely overgrown and barely passable in places. Christina was going to have someone do some clearing as they had a nature walk coming up and that's one of the main paths. When we got back to the parking lot we met up with Frank and started talking. As the conversation went on I felt a little light headed so I sat down on a nearby bench and everything was fine. The conversation moved out to the parking lot and that's where it started. I suddenly felt like I was going to pass out so I moved back to a bench to clear my head before I headed home. As I sat there I continued to feel my head spinning and now also began to feel nauseous. After a couple of minutes someone noticed that I was sitting over there and they called over to ask if I was alright. I said no, I wasn't feeling good. So they came over and asked me what I was feeling. One of them dialed 911 and had an EMT on the way right away.
The EMT's showed up quickly and after asking me a couple of questions began checking my vitals. They did blood pressure, checked my blood for blood sugar level and gave me an EKG. Everything checked out so they asked me if they could take me to Emergency. I refused as again I thought it had passed and I just needed some rest. So I said my farewells and headed home.
Photos courtesy of Frank Wiseman
When I got back home I was tired so I went back to bed, something I never do. I slept for 3 hours. After I got up Denise came home from Mission where she had been visiting with her mother. I told her what had transpired. She was concerned of course and asked what my temperature was. I didn't know. That was the one thing the EMT's hadn't done. So Denise got the thermometer and did a check. It was 102.7'. No wonder said Denise and asked if I wanted to go to the urgent care center. I said no and we had our usual evening. After I went to bed Denise checked my temperature again. It was even a little higher at 102.9'. She said "Get dressed." You're going to the Emergency room. Off to Valley Baptist Medical Center we went. My worst fears were allayed and I was quickly into Triage and off to a room. Someone came in pretty quickly and asked me what my symptoms were. Soon a nurse came in and started up testing, drawing blood and having me go to the restroom to give a urine sample. Shortly the Dr. showed up and talked to me. Again all my vitals were good the temperature was the big concern. He told me that he thought I had a virus and that antibiotics don't work on them. He told me to take either Aspirin or Tylenol and wait it out. They send me home around 12:30 am.
We went back home and went to bed.
Friday I rotated between my recliner and the couch. I was able to eat a little but I had no energy for anything.
Saturday was the same but a new thing came in, my knees began to hurt when I got up or sat down. My appetite was diminishing and I had no breakfast and only yogurt and a couple of carrots for lunch. Denise made a great Chicken Noodle Soup for supper. I got down just a couple of mouthfuls and I was done.
Sunday still having dizzy spells and now my knees are in such excruciating pain that Denise has to help me get to my feet. I'm able to walk but very stiffly. I had no breakfast again and yogurt for lunch/breakfast. Later in the day I had a Popsicle that would be my last meal for the day. Sometime in the late afternoon/early evening I finally vomited. It was mostly dry heaves and some water since my stomach was probably empty. With continuing dizzy spell, shivering episodes fever spiking but never breaking we decided once again to go to the Emergency room and seek some help.
Denise thought about taking me to the other hospital here in Harlingen but decided to go back to Valley Baptist, the devil you know...
Again we got in pretty quickly. The woman who had Triaged me on Thursday recognized me and put us right through. I did note that as they weighed me I had dropped 2 pounds.
There was a different Dr. on duty and after I explained why we were back got the test started and quickly came to different conclusions. She was very focused on my exposure to ticks and mosquito's and directed attention to that. Among other things she ordered a CT scan. After the scan we waited in the room until the Dr. finally came back and announced that she was admitting me to the hospital for a day or two as soon as she could find a bed.
We waited some more and I told Denise that if she wanted to go home I would understand and that I was in good hands. She wanted to wait until they had a bed arranged but after some more waiting she told me to call her when I got situated and let her know the room number so she could come see me in the morning.
As soon as they found me a room I was transported up to the patient floor. The temp in the Emergency room was 79' with 44 % humidity. There was a thermometer on the wall next to me. When we hit the elevators I could feel a significant drop in temperature and I immediately began violent shivering again. By the time we got to the room I was barely able to read the numbers on the room as we arrived. They quickly got me into bed and the treatments began. The nurse crew quickly began doing what was needed with the head nurse working on getting an IV inserted into my arm. Never an easy task with me as I have very small veins and to make it worse I was dehydrated from days of fever. On the other arm I had another nurse taking blood like a swarm of mosquito's. I lost track of how many times she took blood but my arm is still a black and blue mess. The last one she took was from the artery, she said this will hurt more. No exaggeration there it hurt like blazes .
The rest of the night was a series of people coming in with questions, taking vitals i.e. blood pressure and temperature and beeps from the IV machine as it drained of fluids. Oh and someone bringing Tylenol every 4 hours. I talked to the nighshift Doctor a couple of times. She was leaning heavily towards Rickettsia a tick bourne and similar she said to Lime disease. This was the last that I heard of that and Monday a new Team of Doctors came into play and their focus was on Pneumonia. I talked to the three of them pretty early on Monday morning. They told me that they would be doing what they could to ferret out the cause. They also said that if I went 12 hours without a spike in temperature they would send me home.
The rest of the day was much the same as the night before. My temperature continued to spike and when it did they would take away my blanket and let me shiver it out. They continued to pour saline solutions into me as fast as they could. The Doctors were now trying two different antibiotics switching back and forth between them to see which my body would respond to. The nurses had to add another IV port so more poking.
That night as I was trying to sleep I had an attack of shortness of breath. I began almost panting in order to catch my breath. Once it slowed down I buzzed the nurses station to let them know. This was the first incident of this I had had. They came in checked my breathing through stethoscopes and hooked me up to oxygen. They also raised up the bed, I'm sure to ease breathing and prevent fluids from going to my head. This also puts me in a position where I can't sleep so I tossed and turned all night.
The next day I came to call pincushion day. Fairly early on the Dr. came in and questioned me. She asked me if I had an oxygen bottle at home and did I have a chronic cough and shortness of breath. I was taken aback. We had talked about how I hike and I know I mentioned that I hiked in the mountains as well. She did not seem convinced.
After breakfast the nurse told me that the Dr. had ordered another CT scan and not to drink any water or eat any food as I needed to fast 4-6 hours before the scan. It was close to 5 hours when they sent a wheelchair to transport me to the CT Lab. It's a pretty good jaunt to the lab. Down 4 flights and a good distance from the elevator. I got in there and the technician said first thing that she wanted to test the IVport. She got a syringe and squirted a sodium solution into it. Ouch Stop. She did and said the the IV was no good and that they used high pressure pumps for the chalk dye so back up to the room to get the IV changed out. When I returned the nurses got to work immediately. The first thing they did was remove all the IV's from my arms and clean off all the tape. They use cellophane tape there so when removed there is considerable hair pulling. Not a lot of fun. I had three at that time.
Then began the poking. He tried about three different veins before he called in reinforcements. The next person we equally unsuccessful so they called to one of the other teams and got two more people to try. Now I had one on each arm poking and wiggling the needle trying to enter the vein.The guy on the right got the prize. He was quick and painless so soon the transport was back and taking my down to the lab again. They had not tested the IV so I informed the Technician and she tried again. This time I felt nothing. Yay! success the whole procedure took about 35 seconds when she got to it. Back to the room where they heated up my lunch. I was still eating it when they brought in supper. I told them to please take it back as I could barely eat one meal and certainly not two.
The end was near now though I just wanted to keep my temperature down and get through the night with no incidences. I was pretty well left alone on this night except a couple of times when someone would come in for something and leave the light on. I could not wheel the IV stand that far without unplugging that I did not want to do that for fear that it would alarm.
I was definitely feeling better the next day. I got up around 5:30 and made my way to the chair by the window. As the shift changed and the sun came up it was peaceful and I was feeling like eating, something that told me the antibiotics were working. A lady came in and asked me if I would like a newspaper. Yes please I answered and I sat back and enjoy the simple pleasure of quiet time and reading the morning paper.
Soon breakfast was here and I moved back to the bed and ate every bit of it. Plus Coffee. That's my morning drink and I enjoy it. Shortly after breakfast the Intern Dr. came in and made my day. She said that they would be releasing my today after all the paper work was submitted. YAY.
A little later the Team of Doctors came in and explained that they were indeed releasing my and gave me instruction and told me that they were writing a prescription for Doxycycline and an Inhaler. They emphasized that I needed to make a follow up appoint with my family Doctor within the next 3-5 days. No problem.
I called Denise and she said she would come get me. She was there shortly and not long after that they had the paperwork ready and sent a wheelchair to take me down to the entrance.
On the way home we swung by the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions. The Doxycycline was $38.00 which was OK then she gave us the price for that Inhaler. My cost was $389.00. Wait, what? I refused to fill that one and wanted to talk to my Dr. about this portion anyway. The Doctors in the Hospital seemed convinced that I had a chronic lung disease.
When I got home Denise called up my family Dr. and set up an appointment for Friday morning.
I read through the discharge papers and was a little dismayed by what I saw. Their final diagnosis was CAP (community acquired pneumonia) which is non-specific it could be viral, bacterial or fungal. In there also was Emphysema and Substance abuse.
I tried to tell them that I don't have chronic breathing issues so something to take to my family Dr. Substance abuse as well I smoke pot occasionally and don't deny it. Is that substance abuse? Again something for Dr. Gumbel.
As I got into the patient portal and read at the documentation I came across a couple more interesting things. First the pricey inhaler. The first thing they say is don't use this if you have an allergy to Atropine, my only drug allergy. I'm doubly glad that I didn't get that. Next I was reading some of the test results. They were all in doctorese so I didn't get what most of them were. Many also were negative so I wasn't interested anyway. One that caught my eye was RMSF and it showed positive so I googled it. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Another question for my Dr.
Today as I write this it's Friday and I saw my Dr. this morning. He concurred that he thought it was pneumonia. He was concerned that there is fluid in the lining of the lungs and ordered another x-ray for a couple of weeks. He then addressed the epheysema saying that he hoped it would go away as I recovered fully. He asked when the last time was that I had smoked marijauna. Two weeks I replied and that was the first time since we returned from our trip in late August. OK he said, just don't smoke any until you are fully recovered he said. I had no intention of doing that so I reassured him that I wouldn't.
He told me to set up a 3 week follow up with the receptionist and so I will see then how it all turns out. Good I hope.
