If you read the last post, you know that there was something going on with Bill since he wasn't getting any better. Well, we ended up heading to Memphis to the emergency room yesterday (Saturday). I really had to talk him in to it and Connie had wanted him to go Friday night but he refused.

We were very impressed with the staff at the ER. Within 5 minutes he had been checked in and was heading to a room. Emily barely made it in the door from parking the car to follow along with us. Within 45 minutes he had been connected the monitor, had bloodwork done, a chest xray and they had called and consulted with Mayo. Then, aside from a breathing treatment, it was a very long wait for results. The things they were looking at were pneumonia, congestive heart failure, or a rare rejection with the heart. Rejection can happen at any time, but it's usually closer to early transplant.

When the hospitalist came in and said that it was pneumonia in both lungs, I told him I would take that over the other choices and he agreed that it was the best of the diagnoses.

So, he has been admitted to the hospital for a few days.

So far today (Sunday) we have seen the hospitalist, infectious disease practitioner, transplant cardiologist, respiratory for a breathing treatment and waiting for pulmonology. Dr. Burbeck doesn't have privileges here, but her group does so they have requested a consult with them.

We do know that the type of pneumonia he has is not airborne, like legionaires. So they took away 2 of the high powered antibiotics. He only has 2 antibiotics and they are both IV drips, but he doesn't have to continually connected to IVs. They initially had him as a fall risk and had his bed and chair alarmed but he signed a waiver after I got here refusing that. We tried telling him that it was just a precaution but he wasn't having it. We also tried to make a compromise that he would be alarmed if I wasn't here, but he wouldn't agree to that either. 

The transplant dr. is going to consult with Mayo tomorrow and he said that he wasn't planning to make any changes to anything. He did order a CT last night from head to chest and I told him that he would see a "nodule" on his left lung that is just a fold. I told him that after it was seen on the scan a year ago the PET scan had been done and that was when it was discovered that it was just a fold. He said that he was so glad I had told him so he wouldn't be alarmed when he got the results. He also said that he was just going to monitor his meds, especially the transplant meds. He also suggested that we start using them as a back-up transplant group, without giving up control to Mayo, and then he can be see yearly just for a regular check-up much closer to Mayo. I'm going to talk to Stephanie about that when we go next month, but as far as a regular cardiologist, we will be making an appointment for that.

So, that's where we are now and for the next few days. Usually when we are here I just stay with him all the time, but I'm not going to this time, and he is fine with that. It is a long drive, but it's not a bad drive until Memphis proper and, depending on the time of day. But I can work around that as far as heavy rush hour goes.

The cat was very glad to see me last night and followed me wherever I went. She slept on Bill's side of the bed most of the night and didn't wake me until 6, which is very unusual for her. She usually starts about 4!

I will update this more frequently until he's back home, so keep checking in. If not, you'll have lots of reading to do next weekend!