High fever weekend

Deb has just been admitted to Northside Hospital Saturday evening under the care of Dr. Funk for thorough additional testing due to sporadic high fevers for the last two days. They are going to try to determine source of fevers that she has been experiencing. We started with Kaiser Emergency with Dr. Beard and after explaining Deb’s last 48 hours, he agreed that she needs to be admitted immediately to Northside which is the best news we have heard.

It started Thursday night with Deb experiencing high levels of confusion while running a temperature of 101. We contributed some of this possibly to the Fentanyl narcotic patch and decided to remove first thing Friday morning. Next morning Deb was back to her normal self when we removed the patch so I went to work. During the day, her temperature went back up and at the same time so did her confusion and reasoning levels. Tommy called me on my way home and said to get home quick because Mom was very confused and saying things that did not even make any sense. After talking with Kaiser that night, we agreed that this may be related to the Fentanyl still in her body and decided to sleep it off and make decision Saturday morning. Thank you Tommy and so proud of you!

Saturday morning Deb’s temperature was normal again with little to no confusion. I was elated and was hoping this was due to no more fentanyl in her body. All was great until mid afternoon two hours after Susan and Ellen came over. Deb had been resting and when she came down to sit with us her temperature began rising to 102.1 and so did the confusion once again. After another hour and some ibuprofen, her temperature rose to 102.9. That is when we said it’s time to go in!
What was odd is we gave Deb some ice chips and then I went upstairs to get her some clothes. Within minutes of coming back downstairs, Susan said her temperature was dropping and I could immediately tell from her just looking more “peppy”. What we begin to learn from all this was that Deb’s confusion would continue to get worse the higher her temperature. By the time we got to the Emergency room, Deb’s temperature returned to normal.

Most of the blood and other tests have been completed tonight and Deb getting ready to move to her overnight room upstairs at Northside. Met with the IMS, Dr. Espinosa and initial findings is a urinary tract infection that too early to tell if related to the fevers. She is doing fine eating her ice, not running a temperature and watching the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Was able to get some preliminary results from Deb’s follow up CTScan and MRIs from the Kaiser nurse tonight. I will post later after I read thru them.

We are learning quickly from friends (thanks Lisa!) that trips to the emergency room continues to expedite everything and hopefully get Deb closer to a solid game plan.

Good night beautiful and KTS :)

Rod

p.s. Thank you Connie, Susan, Ellen, and Anita!

Update 08.10.08
Deb has been at Northside all day and has not had anymore high temperatures today. They have not yet determined the source of the fevers and as a result, decided to keep Deb for another night since they do a wonderful job with pain management that we cannot do at the house. Now that her pain medicine is completely out of her system, Deb started feeling pain in her right abdomen again and they have given her new pain medicine called dilotin. It has helped alot with her pain but has made her quite tired, foggy, and sleepy all day. Deb was also anemic and received a blood transfusion today.

We were treated with a special visit from Oncologist, Dr. Yafee, who was on call this weekend from Kaiser. This is the first time that we got to meet him after hearing great things about him. He has acknowledged all of the tests that have been given to Deb by Dr. Brodeur and told us what to expect for the Nuclear medicine test tomorrow and Tuesday. Because Deb is already at NS, we are going to see if we can have this scheduled test here in place of Glennlake. We are waiting till we talk to Dr. Brodeur early this week so we can have the big picture test results of everything.

Talked with Deb's Mom Bonnie and sister Susan today. Bonnie will be flying in Tuesday night to stay with us and give Deb her much needed love and attention to keep her strong. Thank you both and it means very much to Deb, me and the boys with you being here.

Deb was missing her bed which I always refer to as her nest so much so I went back to NS tonight to bring her some of her favorite pillows and blanket. I can tell it made all the difference as she snuggled right into one her typical peaceful sleep.

Sweet dreams my beautiful Deb and I will see you in the morning.

We love you and KTS.