Tuesday, December 15, 2009

If Its Tuesday...

...It must be St. Louis.



Let me start by wishing Matthew a very happy 6th birthday! Mommie and Daddy love you very much and will be home as soon as we can!



As usual, we got a bed in St. L after the sun went down yesterday, and after I had given up on it and thought I'd get one more night at home. He is not in the BMT ICU, but in medical ICU, just a few floors up. Once again, for various reasons, there were no helicopters available last night, so they contracted with a private company for a ride on an airplane. So, about the only method Greg has not been shuttled between hospitals now is covered wagon. No one at the hospital told me anything about it, and the first I knew about it was when the nurse gave me a bunch of paperwork to sign (which I have never done before for transport) and asked me for a credit card. Seriously. The private company wouldn't fly him without it, even though it was my insurance company that made the arrangements, and had pre approved it all. I also had to sign stating that Greg was only allowed 2 carry on pieces of luggage (!), and then they wanted a photo ID. Really. The nurse and I convinced them that his hospital arm band was probably enough ID, as I really don't think anyone would be trying to impersonate him at this point. George suggested that his two carry ons be Scotch and soda. Not a bad idea.



So by the time all was said & done, the entire transportation process probably took as long as it would have if they'd have just put him in an ambulance & drove him here. They had to load him into an ambulance & drive him to the Springfield airport. Get him on the plane (did he have to clear security?), fly him to the airport here, put him on another ambulance, and drive him to the ER here, then walk him through the hospital, a total of about 4 city blocks, to get to this unit. Made sense from their point of view, I guess.



After I got word as to what time they were picking him up, I decided to get on the road a little ahead of him. One nice thing is that there's very little traffic between Springfield and St.L late at night. I got here about 12:30, and Greg got here about 1 a.m. By the time they got him settled in, I got into the "room" (its about the size of my bathroom at home) at 4 a.m. Then the nurse had tons of questions for me. I'm glad I was able to verify that he's not pregnant. I'm operating on about 3 hours of non-contiguous sleep, so if I ramble a bit, at least I have a good reason. On the ride up here, I thought of all kinds of witty things to write today in the blog. Of course, now I can't remember a single one. They were all really funny at the time. You'll just have to take my word for it.



Medically, they specifically told me that they ARE going to reinvent the wheel here. They don't trust anyone else's conclusions. Cox sent all the nursing notes, but none of the test results -- incuding the CT scan of his lung. Its too large a file to e-mail, so even if they FedEx it, it won't be here until tomorrow. Figures.



These guys don't think its fungus (but its still evil) and they're going with CMV -- something that showed up in his lungs and he's had before. That would be fine with me. Fungal pneumonia is just about the worst kind to have, so I'll take CMV any day. Its still serious, but clears up a little easier. The ride made his vitals a little unstable, but he's levelling off today. He needs blood and platetels again (no surprise), they've taken a bunch of x-rays, he's got some GI bleeding now, which is new, and they're going to get their own CT scan of his lungs. Still no talk of a lung biopsy, as his platelets are 11 right now. This is a teaching hospital, so rounds this morning looked like a parade. At this point, everyone is naturally non-commital about diagnosis and prognosis, but I'm hoping that will change in 24 hours or so.


I'll post again when I have some info that I don't think will change within the next 20 minutes.

Thanks to all for your prayers and support.

Love,

Greg & Ann

P.S. Oh, and we're back in the HazMat suits, because last year he tested positive for something called VRE. What I wouldn't do for a BeDazzler!

3 comments:

Emily said...

oh two carry ons and a photo ID..... they do try to add humor

Francis said...

Matthew, Happy Birthday! Now you need both hands to tell your age!

I want to know whether those pilots/flight attendants/luggage handlers did those pre-takeoff demonstrations… Eventhough we are certain that Greg is not pregnant; please don’t drink those free booze from the plane ride.

Sally Helwig said...

Ann and Greg, just giving you lots of hugs and lots of prayers.