I watched the Sunday morning TV show from 7-8:30 am.
8:30 am, I started making split pea soup
9 am, I noticed blood in my urine
Google told me I must see a doc
I had five bowel movements in 10 minutes
I vomited once.
I was running a high fever and was shaking uncontrollably.
Rod offered to take me to Kaiser. I opted for an ambulance.
At 9:45 am, the ambulance arrived, Two people had almost to carry me out because I was so weak.
They started a mainline and saline on way to Kaiser ER
I was delirious for the next two hours and wished to die.
They took good care of me, and I was in the Covid ward.
The Covid test came back negative.
They had extensive instrumentation that produced nearly constant alarms.
Still blood in my urine. Axial temp showed 100 and rectal 104. No wonder I was so sick.
I had three main lines of infusing drugs.
Monday, waking up around noon, I was very nauseous and couldn’t possibly eat anything. While in the hospital, I ate very little and didn’t have a bowel movement.
Many of my blood tests came back well out of the normal range.
They applied a male condom to collect urine and direct it to a collection bottle. That made it easy to urinate, as long as it didn’t slip off. Of course, it doesn’t look like a condom at all, and it was my first experience with it. On this visit, I used a common urinal.
I was able to go home late that afternoon. It was explained to me that I might need to return, depending on the results of a culture.
At home, I was able to get my first good night of sleep, take a shower and eat a little food.
The next morning I got calls from three doctors that I had to return for more treatment and testing.
Rod drove me in I had to wait in a long line for 30 minutes to be admitted. Then I was directed to a waiting room, and it was another 30 minutes until a person came for me.
Now I am in a far better room with wonderful people around me. I got lots of sleep and feel much better. A student nurse was assigned to me, and she was great. She walks me around the halls for some exercise too. She worked at a place for young students with autism, so she knew about me.
Since I hadn’t had a bowel movement since Sunday, they were going to give me a laxative to help it along. I didn’t need it as I had already had three bowel movements by 1 pm.
The next plan is to give me an antibiotic for the bacteria in my blood.
I was given an ultrasound exam of my heart. The technician isn’t allowed to tell me anything, but she “let it slip” that she wasn’t alarmed. The doctor has told me nothing.
I am staying another night and should go home in the morning. For the next three weeks, I must do my own infusion of antibiotics at home. I will infuse it 24/7. They have changed the system, and it seems that it will be easy. One Penicillin container lasts 24 hours. I will change it daily at around 3:30 pm. The first few times, I got online help, and now I can do it by memory. The most important factor is preparing a clean working place.
Vanessa can pick up my voting ballot so that I can vote in this election. That is important to me.
My night nurse came to my house, heard my music, and recognized that it was “Patricia,” an organ instrumental. She asked who the musician was, and I told her it was Perez Prada. She heard it on a vinal record as a child and learned to dance to that piece. She started dancing for me. She is the first person to know my favorite piece of music. After that, she took VERY good care of me.
I slept well last night and am rested. Today is full of activity for me. I will soon get a PICC tube stuck into a vein in my arm that ends in my heart for administering the infusion drug.
I am learning more about how the home infusion works, and it isn’t nearly as bad as I first thought. I only need to change the drug bag once daily, and it does the rest automatically. I will have a bag to carry with me 24/7.
I plan to write daily reports with a link below.