What's next you ask?

Sometimes I have wondered why I am where I am.

Other times, it's very, very clear.  THIS hospitalizations is one of those times.  Here are just SOME of the reasons we are here.

1) If Manny wasn't in the hospital, he would have crashed at home and not in the hospital.  Instead, he was here in the safety of the hospital with a doc who knows him well and labs that could point them in the right direction.

2) Prayer: 
So far, I have been able to pray for 3 techs and a nurse.  One tech had a husband in late stage cancer.  She's been sharing the story with me over the time I've known her and it was clear the "end" was near.  Saturday afternoon, we discussed him, his life and legacy and the end of his life.  When she got off from work that night, she knew it was the end.  When she woke up Sunday morning, he had passed.  Asleep peacefully in his bed.  THAT is what she was able to do for him.  To give him dignity at the end of his life.  They had been married for 44 years. 

A second tech (one I barely know), Sunday night was chatting (about 2am) about Tech 1's husband's death and how similar the story is to her Mother in Law.  During the middle of it the conversation, I was struck to pray for the Mother in law, her and her husband.  I didn't know if she would be receptive or not but I just broke into prayer.  At the end, she leaned over (crying) and hugged me. 

The third tech is one I've known for the two years we have been coming here.  She has had many ups and downs.  She shared her most recent ones.  One is a health concern and I had to pray for her.  And (in Beth form), there was a metaphor.  The illness was a physical manifestation of what was going on in her life. 

The nurse (one of Manny's favs) has an elderly parent who also needed prayer.

3) To advocate for Manny.  So many little to large things happen in a hospital, even when things are "routine".  But Manny is anything but "routine".  I'll leave details out for now, but suffice to say that the medical personnel who deal with Manny are kind and caring and knowledgable.  They are also overworked and have MANY patients.  I have just ONE kid to focus on that I am the "expert" in so it's easy for me to catch things.  And I do.

Now ... on to today.  Last night was very, very bad.  Manny's congestion got clearly worse and he coughed/choked basically constantly the whole night.  He was miserable and couldn't sleep for more than 5 minutes at a time.  Nothing helped.  He couldn't be comforted enough to fall into a deep sleep but that is all he wanted... SLEEP. 

By the time we got up for the day, he was burning up with a fever again and sounded hoarse from coughing so much all night.  When Doc came in, he said Manny was sounding gunky in the lower lobes.  (A sign of possible pneumonia.)  He ordered a chest xray. 

2pm, I asked for the copy of the xray report and sure enough, pneumonia.  He was immediately started on an IV antibiotic, they upped his meds to every 4 hours and added another breathing med. Right now the pneumonia is relatively mild and we are hoping it was caught early enough for it not to be a big deal.  But with kids like Manny (with weak respiratory systems), this is very dangerous.  And on top of an already weakend body and low blood counts still, well ... let's just say he can use all the prayers he can get. 

Headed to bed now ... he just fell asleep and I better sleep while I can.  We're going to be up a LOT.  He is coughing more than ever but he now cries that it hurts to cough.  Poor baby can't catch a break!