My Mom (Jacki) hospital stay.

On Monday, April 21, 2008 at around 7:00 pm, my father Dave took my Mom to the hospital because she was having severe pain in her back that was accompanied by a fever and flu like symptoms. My sister, Kim, came to the hospital at approximately 10:00pm.

At around 2:30am (Tuesday, April 22nd) they admitted her to the 4th floor of the hospital. They hooked her up to an IV that had a medication in it that was 8 times stronger than morphine. She was able to control the amount that she would receive by pushing a button every 8 mins. That still was not enough to make her ease the pain she was having, so they doubled her dose and upped her increments to every 6 minutes. The level of pain she was having was a 10. After running some blood work they were able to see that she had Discitis (Hymophilous influenza) is the type she has. Which can be fatal in some people if not caught early enough in the stages.

They were afraid that the infection had spread to her bones. So on Tuesday afternoon, they did a biopsy of the disc in her vertebra and the bone itself. This procedure was EXTREMELY painful to my mother.After doing blood work everyday, and through the CT Scans and MRI's, they concluded that the infection was spread throughout her entire body. The Dr. Nathan could not stress enough that this is a very strong and very painful illness. Now that they knew what kind of infection that mom had/has, they are able to treat it with the exact antibiotic (Recephin) that would conquer the infection.

They keep taking blood tests everyday and yesterday was the first day that they started to see a decrease in the infection. Which is EXCELLENT since up until yesterday, her levels were increasing, not decreasing like we want it to.They will not release my mother until she is able to function on her own, because they are afraid that she might hurt herself. Which if she did hurt herself, she would be in the hospital for a lot longer of a time next time. Also because they say my Dad will not be able to take care of her like they will be able to there. So they are going to move her up to the 6th floor (Rehab) tomorrow. Which I think will be better for her. She will be there roughly at least a week.

Her stomach pain and nausea are gone, and her pain level is now down to a 5-6 from a 10.(and for those of you that know her well, know that she is VERY strong and can handle pain very well, so for her to have a level 10 pain, must be unbearable).

They are planning on putting a pick line in her arm so she can receive her antibiotics that way at home (since she needs to receive them from an IV and not by pills). She will be on the antibiotics for about 6 weeks at home.

They tested her albumin level (nutrient level) and it was a 1.9 which is way low for what it should be. Dr. Nathan is really pushing her to eat. Which I can understand why its so low, she hasn't eaten in almost a week. She doesn't usually eat three times a day, but, she is eating. She had three bites of scrambled eggs, some Ensure and juice today. I am way proud of how hard she is trying to get better.

I will try to keep you updated as to how she is doing as I get updates. Just please pray that my mom will have a speedy recovery.