How did we land here again?

So how did we land here again you might be asking? 

Thursday night he had a low grade fever.  Friday, ditto.  Saturday, ditto.  Sunday, ditto. The fever was below the threshold of 100.4 where we HAVE to go get a blood culture.  But my mama gut was telling me that something was amiss.  So Monday I called and asked for a blood culture. 

Tuesday morning, my heart skipped a beat as I got a phone call from that doc.  Turns out she was calling about his consistently low and dropping blood glucose levels and wants us to see an endocrinologist ASAP.  (Whew! Felt we had dodged a bullet.) 

Tuesday 4:30 pm in the middle of homework and dinner preparation, I get a phone call from the doc's office again.  The nurse said,"How's he been feeling?"  I told her he's had fevers and said, "Why? Do you have news of our blood culture?"  YES.  It's positive.  (They were shocked that I knew to ask for a culture with such "gray, non-descript symptoms".) 

For the next hour and a half, I ran around packing, phoning, kissing the kids, getting arrangements made and then made a mad dash for the hospital.  By 7pm we were admitted and up on our "usual" floor.  We've been away from here for 42 days, by far, our longest stretch since September.  And I was getting used to it. 

I told Manny on the way that we were going to the hospital.  He said, "Just talking?"  That's been my way of saying that nothing painful was going to happen.  (Like a well visit or follow up visit.)  I had to tell him the truth. 

By 9pm, the IV team leaves.  But tonight, she stayed late to help us out.  He's such a difficult blood draw that they give us only the best of the best, someone who has done most of his procedures for almost 2 years now.  And she got it on the first stick!  I felt huge relief! 

Now some of you might be wondering ... why a blood stick if he has a central line.  Most of the labs can be drawn off the central line.  But they need to know if he has bacteria growing ONLY on the line or in the blood system too.  The only way to get that is with a peripheral stick. 

About an hour later, the nurse comes in ... HORRIFIED.  I can tell by the sheepish look on her face that this is not good news.  Apparently, the lab dropped the glass container with that peripheral blood culture!  Seriously? 

So now, he's already been tortured once.  And now again?  And with the IV  team gone for the night?  You've gotta be kidding me. 

But somehow (thank you, Lord), the nurse got it on the first stick too!  (Never happens with Manny.) 

About 30 minutes later they came in and did a glucose blood stick to see if the fluids they have him on are sufficient.  And thankfully, they were.  So it's midnight and he has JUST fallen asleep.  I'm exhausted and traumatized all over again.  And even our favorite "Doc" is on vacation right now.  The nerve of him to try to take family time with his (Very pregnant) wife and 4 kids! (humpf) 

So what does all this mean?  Well, remember back in February and he had a blood culture that said it was positive but turned out to be a contaminant (meaning something got on it during the collection process)?  Well, that was a bacillus which is almost always just a contaminant and they knew right away that this was likely nothing.  And they were right. 

This time, this is rarely a contaminant.  It's too soon to know exactly what is growing but they think this one is real.  We just dont' know if it's only on the central catheter or if it's in the blood.  (One is obviously easier to treat than the other.)  It means we could be here for a while again.  I'll know more tomorrow morning when the infectious diseases doc rounds. 

In the meantime, I have some specific prayer requests.  First, Pray for  Manny ... that he is healed quickly, that he has little to no pain, for protection while in the hospital.  For Kaley ... that she is blessed for her sacrifice of love to come help willingly to the hospital.  For Dan ... his business not to suffer as he is distracted by his job AND mine.  For his ability to take care of both well and his worry is reasonable (I know he is always worried about me and Manny).  For the other kids ... they tend to fall through the cracks in strange and subtle ways.  And they all manifest their abandonment issues in different ways.  For my family ... who take up some of the slack for us like schlepping kids from school, etc. to be blessed.  For me... to maintain health, to be wise about what to do on his behalf, how God wants me to use this time.