Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Hospital Admission 3, Day 1

Will went into the hospital today. His fever was up this morning. His lung functions down. The transplant nurse coordinator felt it important that he get there and get admitted today.

We left around 2:15 and arrived around 3:45. When I left at 9:15 Will had been evaluated by 3 separate medical specialities (ER, Medical, and Pulmonary/Tx) and a total of 5 doctors. (Ours is a teaching hospital, so, you know, there are always a lot of people involved.) The good news is that Will seems to feel comfortable with the doctors who will be following him in the hospital (Medical and Pulmonary/Tx), and to me they seemed pretty on top of things, thoughtful, and listened well. I've definitely had much worse feelings about his hospital team at other times. (Teaching hospital = pretty much never the same doctors in the hospital, ever. Except the supervising pulmonary/tx doctor will probably be someone he has seen before.)

He'll go on broad spectrum iv abx tonight while every blood test imaginable is run and sputum cultured. Tomorrow he'll have a bronchoscopy, which is a serious test, but so far he has always tolerated them, and we'll hope to start to hear something back from all the labs.

He was in good spirits when I left. He always feels better in the evening anyway, and the hospital is a familiar place for him as much as he doesn't like being there. It's always worrying. This time as much because of the specific event as what it reminds us about this year and what the future could hold. This is Will's 3rd or 4th hospitalization this year. (I'm officially calling it the 3rd, but I just can't remember for sure.) Besides that, he was on iv abx one additional time, with a picc line placed while he was an outpatient. Each time he needs treatment for lung infection/pneumonia it's a little harder for him to recovery completely and get strong again.

So, we go on and hope that this time they will figure out an effective treatment quickly and that we can come up with a better every-day routine so he can recover fully and stay well longer.

1 comment:

Eb said...

Oh Elizabeth - I am so sorry that Will had to be readmitted. I hope there is a swift resolution and your all home enjoying Liam again in no time.

Thinking of you sweet Elizabeth. Sending you everything in my heart by way of support. You notes are always so thoughtful and spot on and your support means the world to me.

EB