Health Update

It has been quite some time since I have offered a health update.  Hopefully, it has been understood that no news is good news.  So far, it has been.

Last Thursday, I had noted that the area around my port was feeling pretty tender.  I did not think much of it.  Then on Friday, I was feeling very tired and feverish.  But earlier in the week, two of my sons had dealt with bouts of the flu.  I figured that it was my turn to get it.  So, all day Saturday was a day in bed with a fever.  Pastor Gibbons graciously stepped in at the last moment to cover the service Sunday morning, and Ken R. graciously covered Bible Class with my notes. (I hope they were legible and sensible.)

By Sunday night, the fever was at 102.9.  With chemo treatments, that means a trip to the ER.  Since I have been getting immunotherapy treatments since October, we called to see if I should come in or ride it out.  They told me to come in.  Laura drove me in, and I was in a hospital room before midnight on Sunday.  The fever had reached 103.  An infection was confirmed.  It had grown into sepsis.

I received many, many IV's of antibiotics.  The port was surgically removed and the wound area cleansed from a pretty heavy infection.  Currently, I am waiting on an ultrasound of the port area to confirm that all the infected area has been cleaned up, and I am hoping for a discharge today.  If not today, it should happen Friday.

I will be sent home with 14-days' worth of IV treatments of antibiotics.  After that, oral medication will likely continue for a bit.  I have no word yet on what kind of restrictions I will be under, but people have been generous about helping out as needed.  This is not something I had prepared for heading into the final stages of Lent, but I guess infections don't ask permission before they take hold.

I appreciate all the prayers and the concern expressed by so many.  In all of this, I have been in God's hands; and that is always a good place to be.