Discharge orders are in. Looks like he’s going home today. Hemoglobin has remained steady. Still low but that’s to be expected. He has his normal iron infusion tomorrow and we wouldn’t be surprised if his hematologist suggests more units of blood.
As always, when we go home I usually don’t update the blog and no news is good news. Thanks again for the prayers and for being so kind.
Brent had a good night and got some rest. So far this hospital stay has been pretty good as compared to his last one in terms of his overall care. The ER team was super quick and listened and acted fast. (When you have to be carried out of the back seat of the car and look half dead you get pretty quick attention.) The CICU nurses and doctors were A+, and addressed his immediate needs. He is now on a normal floor and has had good care here also.
Brent’s hemoglobin is still super low but not dropping. They will check it again tonight. There’s talk of going home tomorrow. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. ‘Going home’ is always a bit scary because there’s not a button to push for help. Ha.
Thanks for checking in.
I was late getting up here today, so sorry for no updates till now.
After the endoscopy procedure yesterday Brent received another unit of blood and started to feel a bit better. He was able to sit up without feeling like he was going to pass out. They let him have some clear liquids which is good. When I left last night he was sitting in the recliner and he had a good night.
Today he’s feeling pretty good, still weak and bored, but better. He even listened in on an important work meeting. It’s just a waiting game now to see if the procedure worked and if they can get his hemoglobin to come back up. He’s not famous for producing red blood cells…
I know some of you appreciate specific things to pray for so here goes. The obvious most important thing is that the cauterization worked and holds. That he can get his strength back to function back to his ‘normal.’ To find some peace and rest. Thanks a million. Some people don’t believe in the power of prayer, but we do and feel and draw strength from them. 💞
Brent is back from endoscopy and they were successful in finding the source and cauterizing it and using clips to hopefully stop the bleeding. Thank you for your prayers. He’s super tired and weak.
Quick update. Brent’s hemoglobin stayed steady through the night. It’s still really low, but didn’t drop through the night. They just wheeled him to endoscopy to scope him to see if they can find the source of the bleeding and try to fix it. Yesterdays procedure to go in through the artery and cauterize was unsuccessful as they couldn’t find the source. Here’s hoping that they can find the source and fix it. I’ll update when he’s back. 💞
The procedure to cauterize the blood vessels was unsuccessful. Waiting for the doctor to find out what the next step is.
Brent went from feeling ok and winterizing the trailer (I know, that makes me kinda sick too but only because it means no more camping/fishing) to developing a severe gastrointestinal bleed. He lost so much blood he could not get off the floor. When I call an ambulance he ends up at Utah Valley. If you’ve been here long enough you know our thoughts and ptsd associated with Utah Valley. (Sorry Suzie, who was a great nurse yesterday.) 💞. All his labs were fine, CT was fine, so they sent him home. We both felt uncomfortable going home, knowing we would be returning.
Michelle stayed the night and was a huge help as she is a nurse. She prefers her little patients, not adults. This morning he was worse. Lots worse. Losing a lot more blood and unable to walk or even sit up. I called the GI doc on call for his GI doc and of course he said go to the ER. Brent repeatedly assured me he was ok to go to IMED in Murray if he could lay down. I was hesitant but SO glad we did. Not sure Michelle broke my speed record of driving up here but close. Thanks Orie for assisting in getting him into the car.
The labs this morning were bad. The CT showed a big bleed. They transfused two units of blood in the ER so far. Thank you, truly, to those who are able to donate blood. You are appreciated. He is currently in an Interventional Radiology procedure to cauterize the blood vessels. He will then be in CICU.
Please pray for the procedure to work. Pray that he can receive the care he needs here, as his last stay here was not good. When you are as complicated of a case as he is it’s sometimes difficult to get the care he needs in all areas of his health care. Please pray for him to have peace as he has many responsibilities at work right now. Please pray for him to heal and get his strength back.
We love our team of family and friends and once again thank you for your prayers in our behalf. I’ll update as we have more news.
To say that this hospital stay was not stellar is a gross understatement. Today was the first time that I actually sought out the Nurse Care Manager. I got a text from Brent this morning that was quite alarming. He suggested I might need bail money. 😳. I almost pitied the next doctor to walk through his hospital room door. Almost.
So many mistakes were made, so many stupid decisions, so many procedures and tests that should have been done hastily but were stretched out over a week. Don’t get me wrong, we know hospital time is not normal people time, but this was gross negligence on the doctors part. Medication was not administered as directed which caused reflux which is the cause of coming in in the first place! He gets reflux, aspirates, and pneumonia forms in his lungs. The doctor today tried telling us that those meds wouldn’t have prevented his reflux. Excuse me? Just trying to cover his butt for the mistakes made.
Brent told the doctor in no uncertain terms that he was going home whether or not they approved it. He did not feel safe there with the mistakes that were being made in his daily care. The care manager was kind and tried to find answers and help but he was determined to go home.
We go to IMED in Murray because that is where Brent’s entire medical team is. IMED is supposed to be the best facility. They truly failed this time. It’s so frustrating. Brent’s health is so complex and he can go from feeling fine to being in septic shock in a matter of minutes. When he presents to the ER he doesn’t look sick most of the time, therefore he gets overlooked as an emergent patient and not taken seriously. He often comments that he is the healthiest looking invalid you’ll ever see.
With all of that being said, he is home. IV antibiotics will be delivered tonight. Please pray he can remain home. Pray that his body will heal and that these antibiotics will work. Pray that he can rest physically and mentally. Sometimes the straw that breaks the camel’s back is actually a large tree. With spikes. And poisonous berries. Ha.
Here’s a pretty picture of a beautiful rainbow from tonight. We do know that after the storm comes the rainbow. Life will go on.
Well we finally have answers as to why the antibiotics haven’t been working. The cultures from the bronchoscope show E. coli. That’s a new one. Apparently you can get E. coli from aspiration which is what we know he did. E. coli is resistant to the zocyn which they’ve been treating him with. They just started a new antibiotic, meropenem which should take care of it. Hoping he shows improvement and that he can go home with the new antibiotic.
In our family we joke and laugh. The jokes have already started about this new diagnosis.
Yes, Brent is still in the hospital. He was fever free and they talked of sending him home on Wednesday I think it was, but then he started running another fever. Scratch that plan. I mean, we’re used to running plan x, y, or z. They’ve run all of the tests, cultured all the blood, switched up antibiotics, and still no answers.
Thankfully the TEE showed no endocarditis on the heart valve. The central line cultures are clean. The fevers are at bay. But hey, let’s have a little fun shall we? The heart decided to have a little dance party that caused the tele-tech to notice and then a code blue was called. All sorts of fun people show up real quick when that happens. They were all kinds of confused when they rush through the door with a crash cart and he’s sitting in the chair talking to the nurse like nothing happened. He cardioverted back to normal by himself without needed a little shock from them. Thankfully.
I was in the process of driving down from the Uintas when I get a text from Brent and all I saw while driving was “called a code.” He almost got a text back saying “crashed the car.” Pulled over, read the rest of the text, called, was assured he was still alive and kicking, and continued home to shower the campfire smell off before heading to the hospital.
He’s about to go down for a bronchoscope and I’m headed back up the mountain to get the trailer ready to come home tomorrow and celebrate Joseph’s birthday. Once again, grateful for friends willing to help. Rusty will bring it down because I’m too chicken. The bronchoscope will flush his lungs and hopefully culture out what the precise bacteria is so they can get the right antibiotics on board. He always feels better after a bronchoscope so that’s a plus.
As always, thanks for checking in and for your constant love and prayers in our behalf.
I need to get back to this…..
Well, Brent is still in the hospital. They are still trying to figure out what is causing the fevers. Is it the pneumonia and it’s just not responding to the antibiotics? (he’s on three different antibiotics.) Is it the central line? Is it the heart valve? Is it something totally different? That’s the million dollar (literally) question.
Because we have amazing friends and neighbors, I was able to come up to the Uintas. Thank you a million times over Orie and Rebecca for driving the trailer up for me. I’m too chicken to drive it up the mountain. Michelle drove down to see him today and I will go down tomorrow. We miss him greatly but Violet is excited to rub it in that this year she caught the first fish, not Papa.
Yesterday everything was going wrong for everyone. The winning quote for yesterday came from Joseph. “ Guys! National Lampoon is a comedy, not an inspiration!” Yeah, it was a day.
This morning we thought Brent would be released tomorrow morning because he hasn’t had any fevers. Then he did……😢. he’s currently having a TEE procedure to check his heart valve. Hoping and praying it’s clear.
Grateful for friend and neighbors willing to help with whatever is needed. Grateful for Starlink so I can be in constant communication with him even at 10,000 feet in the mountains. Grateful for family and the joy I see in the grandkids eyes while here. Violet said “I live for this week!” No pressure….
Hoping for clear results on the TEE, praying for no fevers, trying to have faith that it’s in His hands.
I feel like I could just say “ditto” to most of the previous post in February. July is not kind to us. Ever. Last week Brent spent two days in the hospital after a trip to the ER. Diagnosis was pneumonia due to aspiration . . . again. He went home on Friday with continuous IV antibiotics that run 22 hours a day. He was feeling pretty good upon discharge on Friday.
Obviously that didn’t last long since we are sitting in the ER again. He began running high fevers again today and was pretty lethargic. After texting with his infectious disease doctor and seeing the temp we had to head back in.
Hoping it is still just the pneumonia and maybe we just need a different antibiotic. That’s probably best case scenario. Running more blood cultures from the central line and peripherally. They ran an echo a little while ago to check the heart valves for endocarditis. That would be worse case scenario for sure. He will for sure be admitted regardless.
We were supposed to be headed up to the Uintas tomorrow for our annual week in the Uintas with the kids and grandkids. 🤬🤬🤬. I’m just a little peeved. Ok, a LOT peeved. It takes a lot to get ready for this trip. It’s a favorite time for me. We have grandmas craft tent, lots of snacks, lots of fishing, lots of paddle boarding and rafting, lots of fun. Still figuring out how to get the trailer up there so the rest of the family has food and everything. I’ve never driven this one and don’t think it’s the best time to learn. Ugh. Guess we’ll see how this week plays out. It’s so dumb.
Trying to see the silver lining. . . Guess we should be glad it didn’t happen up in the mountains. . .
Life will go on, I will calm down, I will stop wondering what we did to tick off the beings on the other side. To quote our daughter “Okay for real who pissed off somebody on the other side cause all of our lives are like a bad sitcom right now.”
Just for kicks, and because it’s 2:10am and I’m tired and hungry, suggest names for our family sitcom. We need some laughs. Really we do. We like to laugh instead of cry, but today only brought tears.
I was told that there is a rumor of Brent being in the hospital, and that the blog wasn’t updated. Haha.
I’m not quite sure what it is about February that always lands Brent in the hospital. To be clear, Brent is NOT in the hospital. We did however spend most of the day on Tuesday in the ER at IMED.
When Brent develops pneumonia he does not present with normal symptoms. He does not cough, does not have congestion, sometimes no fever. What he does have is back pain. We thought that he had just tweaked his back while smoking 30+ pounds of pork for our son-in-laws Army retirement soirée. But then he had night sweats which of course made us feel stupid that we didn’t think of pneumonia. Do we never learn?
So, after going to Instacare, where they had no conclusive results he was directed to go to the ER. Once again the conversation commenced about which ER? Utah Valley or IMED? Of course the answer was IMED for obvious reasons if you know our history.
After all the blood tests, CT scan, echocardiogram to check the heart valve, and many hours, he definitely has pneumonia. The ER doc was probably the best we’ve had. She knew her stuff, Brent’s history, and actually listened. She consulted with the Infectious Disease doc and decided to administer one dose of IV antibiotics and then we administer the rest at home, with no hospital admittance. WHAT? As we were walking out of the ER Brent commented that he has never walked out of the ER. He is always admitted for something. Weird. But we’ll take it.
So far so good, but he is running low grade fever’s sporadically so we have to keep an eye on that. His ID doc is checking in every day because she knows how fast he tanks.
So, the rumors were partly true. Thanks for caring and for always checking in. We love you.
