1PM Monday, July 25, 2011

Greetings from Sacramento.....on a stop over from Seattle flying into Burbank this afternoon.  Sorry for the missing days of blogging.  Life has been just a little complicated the past week or so from several angles and I've been attempting to manage things much like a juggler does - trying to keep all the balls in the air.  Even though I seem to be given the opportunity to practice regularly, my skill level could use some work apparently....

Pressing and serious family health issues meant I needed to make a trip to Seattle as soon as was possible after Ed was stable, which seemed to be last week.  I flew up late Thursday evening to spend final time with my favorite aunt Mary who is in renal failure with a short prognosis and being moved to hospice care today.  My father's alzheimer's disease is progressing rapidly and he has recently been moved to a memory care ward of a facility in the Seattle suburbs and I needed to spend time with him as well.  I left Ed in the capable care of Lou and the kids with him feeling fine and all the emergency information and meds laid out.

 Unfortunately, Murphy clearly had other ideas for the weekend!  Ed started developing a low-grade fever on Saturday and it became more difficult to manage on Sunday.  The doctors at UCLA decided to order oral and IV antibiotics which we were able to coordinate via telephone and the home health nurse came to the house in the early evening to administer them.  Just as they were finishing the dose, Ed began to get the rigors (uncontrollable shivering that usually signals a spiking fever) so the doctors decided he needed to be taken back to UCLA right away.  Ryan and Aaron took him to UCLA ER and he remains there as of this moment because there are no beds available on the stem cell transplant unit.

I have spoken to him every few hours throughout the night and morning today and he is now feeling better and his fever is down from 103.9 to around 101.  They may decide to pull out his chest port tubes again to culture them for bacteria but right now they are waiting for the blood cultures and labs to be read. 

My plane arrives in Burbank around 4:30 and I will go home and pack some things and head down to UCLA  immediately so I can find out what the plan of care will be and what the blood tests are showing.  Infections can be very serious right now with his "baby" immune system, but I trust that they know exactly what to do for him.  It's just a temporary set back and he'll get through it.  When I know something more, I'll post an update to the blog.

It was a very emotional trip home to Seattle and much too short to feel at peace with my family there, but I hope to go back soon and spend more time.  Obviously it has been distressing to be so far away from Ed during this situation as well.  I usually stay with family or friends in Seattle and those circumstances have changed, so before my next trip, I will have to research a new place to stay, as I had a Twilight Zone type of experience at the "Hotel Satan" (as I have now come to call the place) where I stayed to be close to my family.  I had never stayed there before and it seemed convenient so I took a chance.  When I'm feeling more humorous, I'll detail the "you can't make this up" highlight reel of moments from the trip. 

Meanwhile, I will focus on Ed's situation and get you updated as soon as possible.  Must log off now and make my way to another gate for my next flight.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.