7/04 Editorial Note: One good rule about publishing a blog is if you are falling asleep while proofreading, don’t publish! I am going to re-proof and pretty this up a little! Sorry for the errors. 🙂
I know the subject of this blog, but have no idea how my tired brain is going to get it through my finger tips and on to this page. Nor, do I know what the moral of the story will be. Buckle up and ride along on what promises to be a LONG story…
My husband has been very sick and just came home from approximately three days in the hospital. Last Monday he started to show some serious flu symptoms. Vomiting, fever, chills, dizziness, body aches. Typical bad flu stuff. By Wednesday he wasn’t keeping much down at all. Solid or liquid. He got very weak and we were concerned about dehydration. By Thursday I officially became worried. That’s just too long to go on so sick.
On Friday we went to a walk-in clinic. One where you sign in, do the paperwork and wait your turn. No appointments taken. The doctor was only going to be there half a day and was leaving town for the weekend. He seemed hurried. They drew blood but Hubby was unable to give a urine sample (sorry about the TMI, there may be more). The doctor decided that was OK. After doing an ear, nose & throat exam, pushing on his belly a bit and listening to his chest the doctor wrote the on a work excuse “viral syndrome” and prescribed an antibiotic. What? For the flu? For something viral? Yep. Wham, bam…that’ll be mega-bucks please. NEXT!
Saturday came and life was complicated and busy. Hubby was still just as sick and getting weaker. He was unable to keep anything good down most of the day. I’d gotten him some Pedialyte on Friday and thought that was perking him up some. Come Saturday evening I noticed a change in his color. I thought perhaps he looked…yellow. Because I was tired, stressed and just generally doubted myself, I dismissed it and wondered what Friday’s blood test would reveal.
On Sunday it was clear that he was, in fact, becoming quite yellow! Head to toe and eye balls too. He’d been so sick he hadn’t even noticed. Early Sunday afternoon we decided that a trip to the ER was in order. I gotta tell ya’, my hands were shaking as we got ready and drove to the hospital. We had pretty darn good care at our little local ER which is not always a safe bet. We had a very good Physician Assistant and nurse.
SIDE NOTE: We never did see an actual doctor in the ER. Even though he was said to be sitting at the desk. Gotta wonder if his fee will be on the statement.
They hooked him up to an IV and gave meds for the nausea which both 
helped a great deal. Blood was drawn. Then came the pee-in-a-cup. (TMI alert! Look away!) People…the man’s pee was a dark dark amber rust color! I have never seen anything like it! Makes my stomach flop to think about it. Shocking really. Those test results took a little while because they had to manipulate that rusty pee so it would test right. His liver enzymes through the roof as well as some other very elevated results. An ultrasound of his liver and gallbladder was ordered. That happened quickly even for a Sunday afternoon. The results showed he had gallstones but did not clearly indicate if there was a blockage. So the on-duty Hospitalist (never knew there was such a thing) ordered a CT Scan and admitted Hubby to the hospital. The staff Gastroenterologist was consulted by phone and the wait began.
It was super hard to leave him and come home that night. He was so tired and the yellow, which had semi-subsided due to IV fluids was returning.
Needless to say, sleep wasn’t much of an option for either of us! I got to bed around midnight and was awake again at 4:00. I started getting ready to go back to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. so I could be there when the Gastroenterologist came around. However, I didn’t get out the door until 10:30! In-coming phone calls, things that needed to be done at home, emails to send so the phone calls would stop and just moving too slow, all kept me from leaving.
Hubby called while I was still trying to put on a little make up. I’d missed the doctor already as he was very early. CT Scan results showed that there was not a gallstone blockage. We later found out it also determined that there were no gallstones after all. The gallbladder was just inflamed. So the doctor ordered Hepatitis tests.
Getting a little more worried now, we literally sat all day on Monday waiting as the blood work was sent out-of-town for testing. Bits of good information came though. All those super-elevated levels and counts had gone down. Not where they should be, but not 40 times normal anymore either! Friends and family came to visit. Our amazing Pastor and his wife came a few times and prayed with us. Monday night it was very hard to leave again.
I got to bed after midnight again due to a long purging conversation and prayer with a sweet girlfriend. So busy in her own life, but took the time so late at night to listen and comfort. I’m told there was a very loud and bright thunder-storm over night. I didn’t even notice! Before I knew it my alarm was going off. Up-and-at-it and back to the hospital. We had no guarantee that the hepatitis test results would come on Tuesday, so more waiting was in our future.
ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: Super great day nurse both days. Very knowledgeable and was so good at explaining things to us so we’d understand. We could ask her any stupid question and she was just great. Hubby said all his staff had been good.
As is the case with a lot of small town hospitals, they are constantly under construction and/or renovation. So mid-day he was moved a room over due to having no water. Just after we settled in to a new room, the doctor called Hubby with his test results.
Let me just tell you, we were RELIEVED to find that he has Hepatitis A. Yes, relieved! First of all, if you have to have Hepatitis, that’s the one to have. It pretty much just has to run it’s course until you are recovered with no permanent liver damage. Secondly, if he’d have said “no hepatitis” then we would have begun to worry further about things like cancer. I’ve seen what late-stage liver cancer does and how quickly it takes its inevitable toll. So now he’s home and just has to wait for this to run it’s course. It takes at least a couple weeks. In the mean time, he’s yellow, tired and can’t eat much. Yes, he’s contagious, but not quarantined. There’ll be no smoochin’ for a while. We also have to be sure that those of us in the immediate family who have been exposed are tested. That will begin tomorrow.
We are so grateful for family and friends who prayed, called, texted, emailed and supported those few days. Some on Facebook who barely know us, or maybe don’t know Hubby, gave their well-wishes. A few even posted a prayer request for him as their own Facebook status. Perfect strangers all over the social network were praying and giving their verbal support!! How awesome is THAT?! The Body of Christ at work for strangers. That just ROCKS!!
Maybe there are many morals to this story:
1) WASH your hands! Whether at home, in public or at work. Always wash your hands at all the common sense times. He may have very well contracted the virus due to someone handling food without washing and then infecting the food or area. We have not yet heard of any other local cases, but are told that the Health Department will be contacting him. They’ll want to know every where he’s eaten in the last few months. We will probably never know the source.
2) Don’t live such a secret life that the Body of Christ, family and friends can’t be there for you! Hepatitis isn’t necessarily something you want to broadcast on Facebook. However, up until he got home from the hospital I sure did post just general concerns and updates. And see what blessings of love we received?! Did I mention how that ROCKS?! 🙂
3) Listen to your gut instincts! Don’t settle for one doctor’s opinion. On Friday he was given a not-needed antibiotic for flu/viral syndrome and dismissed. Had he not turned yellow the next night we would have waited until Monday to go back to the same Doctor! He would have continued to have all the flu symptoms and wound up in even worse shape, and recovery would have been more difficult. We never did hear back from Friday’s doctor with any results of that blood test and today is Tuesday!
4) Listen to your body! Hubby now believes that he’s been fighting this virus for around three weeks. Which means he probably contracted it months ago. Which means there’s been more of a chance he’s infected the family. His early symptoms didn’t concern him too much; until the “flu” hit and he was knocked out.
We are just so blessed tonight that this illness isn’t more serious and that he will completely recover.
What are the other morals of such a LOOOONG story? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Thoughts From a Real Life 