They always say hindsight is 20/20, and I guess that's true. At least it's proving true this week-end.

I had thought that our primary care nurse practitioner would want to do another white count on Bill after he finished his antibiotics to see if it had come down. But, she said as long as I was satisfied that he was better, it wasn't necessary. He was feeling better, I could definitely tell that, but, as she had been concerned enough to tell Emily that if he hadn't responded to the antibiotics within 3 days, she would add Rocephin shots, it just seemed reasonable. She was also leaving on vacation and has started a new side business as a yoga instructor so I'm sure she was focused more on that.

Anyway, she's been out of the office all week and Thursday night Bill started really coughing again. But, all of his vitals were good except his O2 sat was down again, but still acceptable, appetite was good, no fever, just stuffy and coughing.

That all changed yesterday morning. I heard him making noise about 5:30 so I checked on him and he was trying to get up to use the bathroom but didn't have enough strength and air to do it. I got him calm and to the bedside commode (good thing we bought that a while back). He had coughed so hard he had already started to go, so I got out clean clothes and took care of that and then had to help him stand so he could clean himself. He's one of those that stands to do that. Anyway, got him back to the bed and he was still coughing so hard that he started to vomit, but it was more he was bringing stuff up. I finally got him to spit it into the trash can and it looked like what they had been suctioning from his lungs the last time he was in the hospital. 

I finally got his breathing slowed some but couldn't get his oxygen about 88 (90 is his baseline). I remembered (after I saw what he had coughed up) that one of the reasons he was put on Lasix was to keep the secretions thinned out some. Mayo wanted him to come off the lasix if possible and had taken him off this month. I checked his medicine box and I had 1 40 mg pill left. So, I gave that to him with his other meds. He was finally able to relax and go back to sleep. I didn't check his blood pressure because I knew it would be high from all of the panic and moving, but he did not have a fever, just the low O2 sat. He went back to sleep and I started making notes.

When it was time I called Dr. Burbeck, the pulmpnologist. After speaking to an operator who took notes the nurse called back and said that they would call in some antibiotics and steroids to save us a trip to Memphis and said to see primary care when she got back to the office. I also had called the pharmacy to get a refill on the Lasix. By this time he was running a fever, not high, but he was warm to the touch and 98.6 is a fever for him, but he was also under a heavy bedspread, blanket and sheet, with pajamas on. So I added Tylenol. He said shortly after that when I checked on him again that he hurt from the top of his head to his toes. But, he wasn't quite as warm.

I was in touch with Emily keeping her updated on what I was finding out and told her that I could really make Connie feel bad for not checking his white count last week. And this is where the hindsight comes in, I KNEW that I should have insisted on it. It only stood to reason that she would want to see if his white count had come down. And that leads to another question. With all of his meds, and his history, he probably won't have a "normal" white count. So, shouldn't we try to establish what a normal count would be for him? Something to ask about next week.

He decided to get up about 1 and his fever was gone and he was finally hungry. I ran to the pharmacy to get the meds and then gave him his insulin and fixed him a waffle (that's what he wanted). I could tell throughout the afternoon and evening that he was feeling better, but as the evening wore on, I could tell that he was feeling bad again and he was starting to cough a little again, but not a hard cough. He went to bed a little after 9 and was a little winded by the time he did the bathroom thing and then into the bedroom. By the way, his O2 did get to 93 which is about his normal when he got out of bed and got settled again.

He didn't move all night, but he also didn't cough all night either. I started out not sleeping well (listening for him) but ended up sleeping until after 5. The cats could tell yesterday that something was up and were very good and let me sleep in a little this morning. But, by the time I had taken my meds the coffee was done so I didn't have to wait on it.

The first part of the week was just a normal week. We had thought we would go to Illinois to see my mother, but she is having plumbing problems so we decided to stay home. In hindsight with that, maybe my intuition was saying something is going to happen. We also had a water problem that still may not be solved. We know where it's coming from and Ryan has fixed most of it but it's still dripping. It's coming from the condensation line from the furnace/air conditioner. He thinks there might be a clog somewhere in it, although he also discovered that it's more level than angled to let the water run. He also noticed we had lost 4 shingles at some point but they had fallen into one of the valleys of the roof so we had them and he was able to replace those for us. I had to buy an entire pound box of roofing nails...and he only used 12. But, what can you do? There was also a loose gutter that he found when he was cleaning those so he fixed it.

That's been our week, really ended with a bang. I had had the thought that even through we weren't going to Illinois we would go somewhere for a day anyway, just take a ride somewhere like we used to, with no reason to go except to get out of the house. But now, I don't know. It will depend on Bill. He didn't get up a little while ago and shut the bedroom door all the way. I had left it partially open so I could hear him better. I heard a little coughing but not what I heard yesterday.

Hopefully we'll have a better day and week-end. I did tell Emily of course this would happen on the Friday of a holiday week-end. I hope everyone enjoys their week-end, whether you have plans or not. There may be some updates throughout the next few days so keep checking back. Otherwise, I'll update as usual next Saturday.