There are a lot better posts that I would like to be making, but this is the reality. I am writing this from the hospital. At this point it seems to be only for an infection, parainfluenza type 3, which contrary to its name is not influenza, but basically a cold. In some cases, especially people with suppressed immune systems this virus leads to pneumonia, which I developed in my right lung.
In hindsight, my first symptoms were probably middle to late last week. Whenever anything is starting to go wrong with my health I start to battle severe depression seemingly out of nowhere, I became bothered by everyday activities. Over the past couple weeks I had been averaging between 15,000 and 20,000 steps by walking our 3 dogs. By the end of last week, it seemed like I was getting a little more tired at the end of each walk, but I felt like it was just the accumulation of walking that much everyday. By Sunday morning I woke up with a scratchy throat, but I had spent the whole day outside the day before and my throat was better was better within hours of waking up, so I attributed it to allergies. Monday I woke up with the same sore throat and a mild dry cough. Again, as the day went on things improved but held on longer than it did on Sunday. Tuesday I woke up with an elevated temperature along with the symptoms from the day before. I went to my primary care physician on Tuesday afternoon and all that she could find was inflammation in nose, so she prescribed me an antibiotic for a sinus infection and it seemed like the throat irritation was caused from drainage going down the throat. Which all makes sense, because I have been prone to getting sinus infections very regularly my entire life.
Feeling better that evening already that evening, we went to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp game. It was one of their bark in the park nights and our dog Frankie enjoys them. She gets to meet all kinds of new friends and usually gets to take part in the great American junk food at the park tradition. But, I’m sure she loves the art of the game as well. It was a great evening, I felt good and we all had a great time.
However, trying to sleep that night, I woke up coughing numerous times throughout the night. When I woke up, I had a similar elevated temperature and all of the same symptoms as before, and my heart rate was slightly higher than it had been over the past couple of weeks. I generally felt worse than I had before. On Wednesday’s around Noon, I have a nurse that comes to the house to change my dressing on my line for my milrinone drip, take some blood work and do my vitals. By the time she had gotten to the house, my temperature had gone back to normal and I felt pretty normal once again. That evening Ashley noticed that my feet appeared to be holding fluid. Occasionally my feet will hold some fluid depending on various things throughout the day, usually by the next morning everything is back to normal. But with everything else, it was another concern to watch. So I told her that I would watch it and if it was still there in the morning I would call.
Wednesday night into Thursday morning I didn’t sleep much at all because I was coughing so much. When it was time to take my vitals in the morning, my heart rate had gone up significantly, my temperature had gone up to 101.7, solidly into fever territory. Which is a horrible sign for someone with a suppressed immune system for a couple of reasons. First, the obvious, they don’t have as much of an immune system to fight the infection. Secondly, to spike a fever, it is usually a significant infection, because they can be sick and not get a fever at all because of the suppressed cells to mark foreign bodies.
Also, my feet still had the fluid in my feet that Ashley had noticed the night before. One of the major fears that comes up in these situations is that rejection and infections have the same symptoms. So I called my transplant team in Orlando and told them that I was coming to their Emergency Room.
I got to the Emergency Room in Orlando about 11 AM and with my history, my heart rate, temperature, body aches, etc. they got me a room immediately because they were concerned that sepsis was a possibility. They ordered bloodwork, chest x-ray, EKG, ECHO, and various other cultures and samples looking for the potential source for infection. The first result and immediate sign that I would be admitted was the X-Ray with a bright white ball in my right lung, indicating pneumonia. By the time they got me a room upstairs and got me transported up there one of the results came back with the preliminary result mentioned before of a parainfluenza virus. The ECHO came back with a result that could be a good sign and I say this with huge reservations, but my ejection fraction MAY be a little bit better. As mentioned in a previous post, ECHO’s notoriously have a pretty big margin of error. My EF came back at 40% this time, which could be slightly better than before, it could be about the same, but probably not any worse than before.
As of right now, nothing has grown on any of the other cultures. They have me on IV and oral antibiotics. The plan is to have the infectious disease department reevaluate me on Monday. In the meantime, I am listening to podcasts, reading, daydreaming, and enjoying one of the few things you can stuck in this particular hospital versus others…the views. Interestingly, one of the main flight paths into MCO, the busiest airport in Orlando, goes by the hospital. Being the transportation nerd that I am, I downloaded an app that shows which planes are in the air real time, so I can see which airplanes are landing, where they are coming from, and which airline it is. I think this could be almost as interesting outside of the hospital as it is being in the hospital, if I had the same view and could see the same amount of airplanes, but who knows.
This is another time to remind people that if you are sick, or even have some symptoms of being sick, to stay home, or if you have to go out, wear a mask. It is an inconvenience to you but it is life threatening to people like me. It means that you have to stay at home on your couch or bed, to me, it means staying in a hospital bed and getting stuck with IVs, being away from precious time with my family. I would be so happy to just be home and not in a hospital. This virus was likely spread to me through someone who had a cough and spread it through the air, or not washing their hands after coughing or sneezing into their hands. Be a good neighbor, friend, co-worker, etc. and be respectful.
Also published on Medium.
