Dick seemed fine this morning at 9 when I gave him his pain meds and Tylenol. By 10:45 he had a fever of 100.9 and was not willing to take a drink of water. Our son got immersed in caregiving bit time. I phoned 911 and the EMT's said his oxygen was down to 76. A ride to the hospital was in order. I had Geoff go with him in the ambulance and then packed up stuff here, emailed the pulmonologist and phoned our daughter. Also fielded a call from the ER nurse re history. By the time I got there they had done blood work, CT scan of Head, chest x-ray and the ER doc took off the Fentanyl patches.
I was livid. I was told when people come in confused and on Fentanyl is is SOP. Well I told then he is confused because of his fever and you do not take a 100 mcg Fentanyl off just like that. He needs them for his metastatic rib pain. What are you going to do for his pain. I never got a good answer. However
this was his fastest time yet in the ER before admittance. They turned over the case to medical and the attending came into talk with us. She said Dick had a UTI. Confused well duh, this is classic sign of UTI in the elderly. She reinstated the patch, we went over the med list so I was satisfied he would get what he needed while inpatient. By 5 p.m. he was in his hospital room. After two IV antibiotics and IV hydration he was looking a lot better than he did at 11 a.m. They also think he has pneumonia but it is hard to read the x-ray because of the cancer.
These things come on so suddenly. We had fun at Joe's Crab Shack last night. Dick ate very well as he polished off all his shrimp plus clam chowder and key lime pie. I had hoped we had seen the last of the UTIs. I so hate what they do to him.
Last weeks visitors left today, they did add to my stress level. I hope the remaining visitors won't be so needy. I really want to see my grandson but I also cannot imagine a 19 month old staying here for anything more than an hour. I'm still struggling with how to accomplish having our daughter bring him along for her visit. She wants to help but she is also high maintenance and a toddler is always high maintenance. Julie
