ER Visit Update

Our really good friend R took Gess to the hospital last night. R was amazing! Gess has kept saying how well R handled it, etc. I think that it was really good for Gess to have R go--to see that there are other people in our lives that can be there to help and that doing it is not going to be harmful to them.

Apparently the ER docs ran some tests and took a chest x-ray etc., and nothing significant showed up. Oh, except for the broken hand! When the pain started Gess hit the wall in frustration--breaking his hand (again)! So that is another issue...

The ER doctor gave him the option of staying in the ER overnight to be watched or going home and calling the CF Clinic in the morning. He chose the later option and arrived home around 3 am. For some reason he was talkative and talked to me for about an hour. My last memory before falling back to sleep was him saying he was ordering me a gift online and not to open anything that comes for him in the mail...at least I think that is what he said :)

Anyway, he was able to get a bit of sleep and the pain seemed to subside some. It comes in bursts and he describes it as "spasms." He has been feeling pretty healthy. But then the bleeding this weekend and now this.

So I called the clinic this morning and talked to the nurse coordinator, who in turn talked to the doctor. They think that this is probably an exacerbation--but just not in its "typical" manifestation. So, they are starting him on IV antibiotics (tobra and cefaphime I think) and hoping that works.

Also, they asked us if we would be willing to switch home health companies, and we agreed, so hopefully the start up and this round of IVs will go smoothly.

And on a related note, when we rescheduling his last clinic appointment I simply asked that he be scheduled to see a different doctor, and thus far, that seems to have been enough to make a change--the nurse hasn't said anything about our reasons, etc. and we haven't really volunteered the information. But if this is it and he now has a new doctor, I am very relieved and happy! We'll see how it goes. He is scheduled for clinic in late October.

Anyway, thanks to all for your support and encouragement! The light of day has made me feel better about what happened last night too.