THE UPDATE

Short version: heart is stable and working fine. Seeking sources of infection(s) while being treated with broad spectrum antibiotics and anti-fungals. Turned a corner a couple of nights ago, out of CCU, and feeling much better.

More

After the last post describing what was going on last Weds, they made sure my heart was stable and that part was working OK – and it seems fine. Now we could just focus on the thing that actually brought me into the hospital: some type of lung and/or systemic infections.

We all breathe in boatloads of air that have spores and molds and fungii in them. People that are in my condition have compromised immune systems, and their bodies provide an opportunity for a huge number of possible invaders. They just don’t like you near as much as me since you have your Army waiting for them.

The team now consists of a cardiologist, a pathologist, a pulmonoligist, my incredible local oncologist (I could do a blog post just on her, but I’m not sure she’d like that). The team seems solid and they’re all working it as quick as it will happen.

The day we got into the hospital they had taken more blood samples from me than any of the nurses could remember seeing. That’s the thing, most of the “exotic infections” have to be cultured in the lab from the blood, they are directly detectable in the blood (why not? if the culture will grow there are at least spores in there. Is this a needle-in-haystack problem?). These cultures can take up to 4 weeks.

In the meantime, I’m treated with broad-spectrum drugs that are machine-gunning without a known target. But they seem to be making progress and I’m feeling MUCH better and incrementally better each day. But to leave the hospital, we’ve got to reduce the number of IV bags.

So we wait, until the target is identified and look into getting that sniper.

And once we know where I land the Keytruda is waiting, but the doctors need to figure out what condition I should be in or if anything that just happened has any impact on the risks of my “trial of one”.

THE MUSING

The timing wasn’t very good. Two of my very close friends were coming in from Portland and Mississippi. We wondered if they should cancel their trip, how much I’d even see them, if my infections would progress quickly or get slowed/halted. But they came. And it was a great thing they did. I was in CCU when they arrived, but then got moved out into the Hannel Party Suite upstairs.

I had my whole family, and closest friends all around me and I’m pretty sure that helped. Yeah, there were stories told about our adventures over the years, but everything just felt so right. I loved seeing some of my oldest friends hanging with kids and just being here.

I don’t think any of the doctors or nurses had ever seen 13 people in beach chairs and standing-room-only. Really funny to see their faces when they peeked around the curtain into our bright and sunny party suite.

So, what is my musing? Well, while my body was not very happy quite yet, my spirit was overflowing (yes, tears, it is true).

I think most of the pictures we have are other phones, so I will definitely follow up with some pictures. It was a sight to be seen.