Best Laid Plans

So much for things working out!! I thought that since Gerry was doing ok and I didn't have to fly to TX with him for this new treatment that I would return to work 2 weeks earlier than planned (that paycheck was crying for me). Well, Gerry has had a fever since last Monday, the day after we got off of the cruise ship. The first few days he had a runny nose with the fever. When we saw the dr. in TX the fever was around 99.5, but the next morning it was almost 101 so the dr. prescribed a Z-pack antibiotic. Gerry started it immediately, before we left TX. He had fever Saturday and Sunday, but it was low on Sunday and he napped before the BIG GAME (Giants vs. Patriots). We had Mom and a few friends here and we had a wonderful day. When the Giants won, my tired Gerry was so excited he jumped up yelling (as Mom and I did too) and he ran in his stocking feet, out of the house, yelling down the street! Do you think he was happy? You bet your butt he was. But Monday he still had a fever. I went out to do errands at 3 PM. He napped, and when he woke around 6 he had 102 temp, so we went to the ER that is in the hospital (Bethesda) 2 miles from our house. They did a chest x-ray, took LOTS of blood, urinalysis, gave him two antibiotics and finally at 2 AM they admitted him ( a week is a long time to have an unidentified fever). He is still in the hospital. When he was admitted his white blood count was 13.0 (range is 4.5 - 11.0), which indicated a possible infection. His hemoglobin was 8.9 (range is 14 - 18). He ran fever low to 100.1 on Tuesday, and had no fever today until 7 PM (after the dr had been and gone). Yesterday (Tues) his WBC was down to 10.4 and today it was 9.0, so that's good, but his HGB is 7.9. He is getting a transfusion tonight at midnight. He now has a new Florida oncologist (who is also my mother's doctor) and we like him a lot. He looked at Gerry's scans from last week in TX and ordered an ultrasound of the pelvis, which is being done 9:30 tonight. He will also prescribe Airanesp (Procrit) for the anemia.

We got a call from TX that they need to change the date for Gerry to start the clinical trial (see below). They wanted to make it for next Thursday the 14th, but Gerry was worried that if anything went wrong he would not get back in time to attend the Daytona 500 for which he has (very expensive) tickets. The race is important as he feels it could possibly be his last. So we made his treatment start date Feb. 25th, and I rearranged his hotel and flight reservations.

Had I KNOWN (and who does?) that he would be in the hospital I never would have made arrangements to return to work, but the paperwork is in so...I am going in two days. The sucky part is that I had planned to do "stuff" for the past three days but I have been with him each day. Tomorrow I have to get that "stuff" done, so it will be a run-around morning! Am I allowed to yawn a bit and say I'm tired? Ok, just this once!