The Next Day

Woke up Wednesday morning in a strange bed with strangers for my room mates. I was supposed to be in a semi-private room but as the Hospital is full I was in a public room. Hell at least I was not in the hallway. (Did not bother me that much anyway 2 beds vs. 4 beds)

Breakfast came and as was hungry I ate it. Can not remember what it was except it tasted like crap. Then it was more blood work in between my fevers. The doctor came in about 9:00 am and was talking about preliminary findings. They were waiting for the first set of blood cultures to come back. He told me I would get an echocardiogram latter that day, and then it was just wait and see.

Lunch came, then a few hours latter they stuck me in a wheelchair and I was taken down for the echo. That done I put some clothes on and went for a walk, as well as make some phone calls.

I was gone for about an hour and when I made my way back up to the ward a nurse said they were looking for me. Turns out the preliminary results had come thru. It was a bacterial infection of the heart. Endocarditic……………..

Won’t bore you with the details as Google will tell you all you need to know, but I will say this. Not a lot of people get this so I guess that makes me special. Now if I could only win the damm lottery!

They now new what I had but had to wait for the blood cultures to finish so they could find out what bacteria it was and then which antibiotic would kill it. That said they wheeled me down to the Operating Room, bed and all to put a “Center Line” in my neck. I was given a local and a mild sedative (UMMMMMM you just got to like those sedatives!) and they ran a line down into my heart. This way the medicine would go closer to the infection. That and the line could stay in for a couple of weeks as opposed to 3 or 4 days for a normal IV line in your arm.

The procedure was a little uncomfortable but it only took 10 minutes, then I was in recovery for about an hour and then it was back to the ward. Great! I had missed the yucky dinner. A little while later the doctor showed up, said that it was a strep infection, not quite sure which one yet and they would start the penicillin treatments………….for 4 to 8 weeks

posted by lostinthetriangle @ 8:23 AM Comments: 7