Hello Everyone. This is Ginger. We have had a very rough week. Last weekend (can't remember what night) I was getting ready for work and realized that we didn't have hot water. Turns out the sump pump wasn't working properly (later we have come to the conclusion that the drain froze). Water was deep enough in the basement to extinguish pilot lights on both the hot water heater and the furnace.
Thankfully, we have two electric space heaters and a propane indoor heater that have kept the house warm. Thursday after my brother, Bruce, was done with work, he stopped by to check what was going on with the sump pump. (We had been thinking that because we could hear the sump pump was running that it would eventually catch up and the water level would go down and had put off asking him to come over to help.)
Meanwhile between running the space heaters and boiling soup kettles of water for daily living Jeremy started to feel crummy. Originally I thought it was a fibro flare and him just generally feeling crappy. He sometimes goes days going not much further than between the bed and the bathroom, so didn't worry too much that he was doing that. Wednesday night he complained of his jaw and wisdom tooth on the right side hurting. Thursday morning we woke (using the word loosely, neither of us slept well, he was tossing and turning all night, waking me to turn up the heat, shut it off, turn the fan on/off, help him cover up with his blankets, etc.) to Jeremy looking like he was impersonating a chipmunk who had a golf ball tucked in his cheek. We spent Thursday morning playing phone tag with the dentist. They were trying to figure out what antibiotic they could prescribe so that Jeremy could come in and have something done about his tooth. Last fall they gave him clindamycin and he ended up in the Wausau hospital overnight because we were worried that the infection had gone to his heart. Anyway, his appointment was for 2 pm, and for the dentist to be able to do anything for him he had to have taken the antibiotic at the very least an hour before that. He ended up taking the antibiotic at 1:10, his butt hit the dentist chair at 2:15. Too close in my opinion! Originally the dentist thought that he could drain the infection and that would be all that was needed. He ended up having to take out the tooth next to the wisdom tooth. Jeremy's pt/inr was high earlier in the week so we knew going in that he would bleed a lot. We weren't wrong.
While I was at the pharmacy, I picked up other meds Jeremy needed refilled. Turns out we're in the donut hole of the part d Medicare plan now and his pharmacy bill was $475. That was about 75% of his meds for the month. We also need to get his insulin refilled, which will be about $450 a month too. We will have to get a generic form of one of them thru Walmart. The insulin is $25 a vail thru them, not cheap, but less than from the pharmacy. Jeremy does okay with the generic, its a regular acting insulin, the one he is prescribed is fast acting. What that boils down to is normally he would take his insulin 10-15 minutes (in a perfect world) prior to eating. For the regular acting insulin he has to take it about an hour before he eats. Also, can't just spot check his blood glucose and inject insulin an have a quick results, which takes some getting used to.
So while Jeremy was at the dentist, Bruce was at the house figuring out how to drain the basement. He rigged up a system that seems to have done the trick. Thursday night I slept on the couch downstairs, letting Jeremy sleep (and toss and turn) upstairs. I knew that if I crawled into bed and slept a deep sleep there would be no way I'd want to get up and check the basement every couple hours. I was awake most of the night and slept during the day because I was schedule to work that night. About 5 or so I got up. Bruce showed up right after. We soon decided that I should run to the hardware store (they close at 6:00) to get some fuses for the furnace in case that's why he couldn't get it lit. (Turns out it's not, but we didn't know that then.) So I took off for the store. The sun had been out during the day and the truck was warm inside, so I put the driver's side window down. When I pressed the button the window made a strange crunching sound. I quickly put it back up and tried the other windows, they worked. So I got to the store and attempted to open the door. The handle wouldn't budge. I fiddled with it, hit the door locks a couple times, nothing. I ended up having to crawl over the console and use the passenger door.
So while Bruce was in the basement, I went to check on Jeremy. He was feeling worse than before he went into the dentist and his jaw line was more swollen. We decided that as soon as the water was hot enough we'd both take showers and I'd bring him to the ER in Ontonagon. At about 8 pm, we were ready to go the ER. Got Jeremy settled in the back seat, and I climbed over the console and tried to start the truck. Nothing. Not even a 'click' when I turned the key. Turns out that I had automatically turned the lights on when I went to the hardware store and because I didn't open the driver's side door the alert didn't go off and I left the lights on, draining the battery. (99% of the time when I drive the truck, I have to have the headlights on, it's so automatic that I don't even realize that I've turn them on.) So Bruce brought us to the ER and went back to the house and put the charger on the battery.
At the ER, they ran some tests to see if Jeremy was septic from the infection. He wasn't. They then did a ct to see if the area still had an infection or if it was just swollen. Turned out the abscess was 2x3 CENTIMETERS! The decision was made to transfer him to Wausau so they could drain it. So Jeremy was sent to Wausau via ambulance Mom and I followed in Bruce's van.
We got to Wausau about 5 am Saturday morning. Jeremy had a procedure at about 2 pm. They tried draining the abscess via his mouth, but were not able, they ended up removing the wisdom tooth and putting in a drain that is external. The surgeon (who had been doing ear nose and throat procedures for 20+ years) warned us that when operating on that part of the neck, it is not unheard of (and unfortunately, he's seen it first hand) for various nerves in that area to be hit and have the following consequences: (least case) numbness on that mouth and loosing the ability to pucker to (worse case) nerve damage that put him on a ventilator permanently. Turns out Jeremy has some numbness on that side of his mouth. He can pucker to whistle, so at least he will still be able to kiss me! :)
It's now Sunday morning. We had an uneventful night. He's running a low grade fever and is using morphine for pain control. We will be staying here at least one more night.
After we get home, I have a lot to do besides getting Jeremy well. I will have to fill out paper work to see if Jeremy qualifies for prescription assistance thru Medicaid. I'm going to have to call the plumbing and heating guys and have them come out and check the furnace. Last time the pilot was flooded they had to replace a part before they could relight it. I'm hoping the fix is that easy. And then there's the truck. We've had it for three years now, its a 2001 Expedition and falling apart. It needs new brakes and muffler and now there's something wrong with the drivers' side door. We've been kicking around buying a car or van for a while, looks like the time has come. I have a few leads for cars that would work for us, will see how that goes.
Those are the lows of the week. The highlight was the Memorial of Jesus death at the Kingdom Hall Monday night. Jeremy wasn't feeling well enough to go, so we used the phone hook up and at least heard the program over the phone. Another highlight was the support from my family and friends from the Kingdom Hall. And the staff here at the hospital has been great. They have a new program where I can stay over night in the room. Mom got a hotel room (the place we normally stay very close by) and I stayed in the room.
Hope all is well with everyone else! Drop us an email anytime, we'd love to hear from you.
No comments:
Post a Comment