Thursday, February 21, 2008

OHSU . . .

F came down with a fever on Tuesday, Feb. 12. It was holding steady around 101 - 100 degrees. On Thursday morning, her temp rose to 102.4. I called Dr. Weeks and they fit her in for a late morning appointment. Dr. Weeks, thought she might be having a drug interaction from a sulfa antibiotic given her about 8 days before for a skin infection on her abdomen. She had someone from the lab come to the exam room to draw blood and urine. Then they sent us home.
On Saturday, she was having a tough time resting, eating and drinking. I kept trying my best to keep fluids going. Late Saturday night, she began speaking phrases that didn't make any sense. Norm slipped the bp cuff on her and her pulse registered at 129. We scooped her up and took her in to the emergency room at Salem Hospital.
They quickly assessed that her arterial blood was not being oxygenated. She complained of not being able to hear or see well and that her hands felt numb. they took her in to do a cat scan of her head and an xray of her chest. Very soon after that, they put her in an emergency area that looked more like an ICU and put her on a respirator. the doctor told us that he felt they needed to do that to make sure her body was receiving sufficient oxygen. He also said that they'd have to transport her to another hospital since their ICU was full. They put her on an ambulance with a respiratory therapist, ICU nurse and the two paramedics and drove her up to OHSU with lights flashing.
Scary, scary time.
Jon was with us. We drove home to get reading material, feed the cat and send out a quick email to family and friends.
Continued later . . .

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