First off, Teresa (my wife and best friend in the whole world) is doing much better after spending a week in the hospital and two weeks at home on oxygen and a nebulizer. She recently had some scans done and her lungs are looking a lot better.
In case you missed it, we all got sick at home with Brandon (our son) getting a really bad cold but was able (for the most part) kick it after a week or two. Then I got sick and spent two weeks battling this crud but was able to finally kick it. Dad never got sick though so, that was a mystery but then Teresa caught it and just couldn’t kick it.
I brought her to urgent care and they gave her some antibiotics, steroids and some nebulizer treatment solution but, after a couple of days, it simply wasn’t getting any better and she was actually having some troubles breathing. So, she asked me to take her back to urgent care immediately.
Upon her examination the doctor felt that she had a blood clot in her lungs and called for an ambulance right away. They took her across the street to Alina Hospital where they determined that it was NOT blood clots but rather, double pneumonia (both lungs) and was admitted immediately. They hooked her up to oxygen and provided some hard core meds, regular neb treatments, more steroids (to reduce the inflammation in her lungs) and some injections to prevent blood clotting.
After a week in the hospital, we were able to take her home but she will be on oxygen for a month, doing physical therapy and the huge shocker, she QUIT smoking! Woohoo! It’s been two and a half weeks now and she is wearing a patch (21/14/7mg) to help with the nicotine cravings etc.
We are all SO proud of her as we know how hard it is to quit especially since she’s been smoking since high school. So now it’s my turn! YES, I’m the jackass who after a massive heart attack and stage 3c colorectal cancer (CRC) , I’m still smoking. However, I’m down to half a pack a day and have just received a prescription from my doc for the patch and I’m planning quitting as well as of next week.
There are some medical reasons (well, duh) why I need to quit and due to a recent turn of events in my health (a story for another day / article) I will have NO choice in the matter, I have to quit….and now!
So back to Teresa, she wanted me to thank ALL of you who prayed for her, sent her cards, called and provided her with uplifting encouragement when she was SO sick and, almost died. If I wouldn’t have taken her in that day, the ER doc said she probably wouldn’t have made it through the night. So, spending a week in the hospital hooked up to oxygen and loaded up with a ton of meds and IVs……she really enjoyed me reading her all your prayers and kind words of encouragement.
So, hopefully in another couple of weeks she will get off the oxygen, wont need the nebulizer treatments anymore and can start taking care of me (this happens all the time) but again, story for another day. But it’s funny that when she gets sick, I’m her caregiver and then she recovers and then I need her to care for me…..over and over again. This will be the third time now (broken bones and surgery/kidney stones/spinal cord surgery/heart attack/cancer/pneumonia/etc….) so hopefully we can get a break come the holiday season…..we’ll see eh?
So, thanks again for all the well wishes, healing prayers and kind words of encourage. She really appreciated it and it helped her more than you know.