During the stay....

So, Jake was admitted to the hospital on April 11th. Here is a time line of what happened...

April 11th- Jake was admitted for a small bowel obstruction. He had 3-4 doctors coming in asking him about the pain he was feeling. He just kept talking about his headache. He was extremely sensitive to light and sounds. Everything had to be dark and quiet. I had left to make arrangements for the kids. I ended up taking them to the Looman's house. When I got back to the hospital I noticed Jake had a rash. I mentioned it to the nurse. It wasn't long before the General Doc was back in to ask questions. After a brief assessment we were informed Jake had to be put in "contact isolation". They put him in a private room and we had to wear face masks. They started him on an antibiotic, ordered a cat scan and lumbar puncture (spinal tap) STAT. Oh and by the way, they decided he did not have an obstruction but a paralyic ilius (spelling???). That means his bowels were imobile due to excessive irritation (diarhea). They said they would start working again on their own. In the mean time, Jake was not allowed to drink or eat anything. Not even water.

April 12th- Still wearing face masks, still no water or food, still sitting in the dark, his fever had gone down. The infectious disease (ID) doc comes in and looks at Jake's file. She tells me his lumbar puncture numbers were "unimpressive". She said his flu test was negative. "He does not have the flu, so he can stop taking the Tamiflu (med for the flu...it has to be taken within 48 hours of the onset of flu symptoms...he had been sick for a week at this point). Just then the nurse comes in with a cup of water and some meds. She gives Jake the pills. It was Tamiflu. I thought it was odd that he was allowed to take pills now, since he isn't even supposed to drink water. The ID doc suspects a virus. She informs me she is going to stop his antibiotics. She leaves and 5 minutes later returns to tell us that Jake has Influenza. Hmmmmm. Didn't she just say he didn't have the flu? I think she thought I didn't know Influenza was the same as the flu! She explained that Jake was responding to the Tamiflu he had been taking. I asked her if they had been giving him Tamiflu in his IV and she said it was only in pill form. I explained to her today was the first time he had taken them. She changed the subject....very smuggly I might add. After she left I caused a big rukus with the nurses and come to find out - he had not taken that medication until she was actually in the room and really he shouldn't have been given it because he wasn't allowed to have anything in his stomach. So, his first diagnosis was based on misinformation. The next two docs that came in said he had Viral Meningitis. Also, all the docs agreed he could eat something. No one ordered it in the notes. So, Jake didn't get to eat (or drink). Oh, one more thing. They all agreed the Cat Scan was fine. GI x-rays looked fine. A surgeon, neurologist, ID doc and general doc all said these things were fine.

April 13th - Still in the dark, still not eating or drinking, no face masks! He woke up in the morning with a fever of 104. They gave him something for it and later checked him. It was 102. The nurse had obviously been tipped off that I was "difficult". She was completely rude to me. The docs all came in and didn't really say much. I missed the ID doc but she didn't changer her diagnosis. I also complained that Jake's chart didn't say he could eat yet. His head was still killing. Jake started hallucinating all day. His IV wasn't in a good place and each time he would bend his arm it would beep. Jake kept thinking it was the alarm clock. I asked her to move it and she almost laughed at me like I was ridiculus or something. As soon as the night nurse came in she moved it. It took 5 minutes. I didn't see the day nurse for 4-5 hours so I went looking for someone to take Jake's temp. When they took it, it was 105! Suddenly Jake had a lot of attention. Meds, oxegen, phone calls, specialist..... It was scary. His pupils were fixed and dialated. A different nurse was on by then and she called all the docs. None of our real ones were on call so we got their co-workers. Luckily. One ordered an MRI of Jake's brain. One ordered a massive amount of antibiotics. Another nurse came in and helped me strip Jake down and sponge him with cool water. His temp finally came down. He was hungry and at 10 PM Thursday Jake finally got to eat.

I'll tell you more later.

Let the Drama Begin....

So, Jake ends up at the ER. We went to a local hospital in Akron. We had 4 to choose from within a few miles from each other. We picked the one our insurance favors (less deductable). When we get there Jake is in bad shape. He is pale and looks like he is about to pass out any minute. We go up to the registration window and this very nice lady comes out and immediately recognizes that Jake is seriously ill. She gives him this little barf pan that would not have been competition against his violent heaves from earlier. I fill out his initial paper work. We sit down. Two minutes later we get called to the desk. This time we had a different lady. She directs Jake to triage to get his vitals and all that. So, we go back and this lady is asking Jake a bunch of questions. He can barely talk or function so he points to me to answer some of the questions for him. The lady looks at Jake and says "Who is this woman? Your girlfriend or your wife?" Mind you, I am sitting in the same room but she is talking to him about me while I am right there. She never said a friendly word to me or even a smile. So, that is where our journey began. Before long they had Jake in what they call a room in the ER. It was hardly a "room" by any stretch. The walls were curtains and you could hear everything going on in the other rooms. Throughout the night Jake had x-rays and blood work and consults and exams. We didn't get much sleep. One doctor said, "he has a virus and after this IV bag we will probably send him home." By 7 AM they are telling us, he has a small bowel obstruction and he is being admitted for surgery. WHAT???? Okay, I began making phone calls and arrangements. Jake would be staying in the hospital. I start from there later.....

I'm Back & I have A LOT to say.....

Sorry it has been so long. I have been so busy it is unbelievable. Jake is out of the hospital and doing much better. He is still resting this week and will be starting his new job next Monday (finally). It is crazy because he has known about this job for months and it seems like he has been waiting for his first day to come for so long. It is hard to believe it is actually going to happen. Well, either way, I guess you can't plan in advance that you will be getting sick and staying in the hospital for 9 days, can you?

Have you guys been reading Jake's blog? He has been writing a little bit about his hospital stay but has asked me to fill everyone in on the details. I have been talking about it so much I have a little burn out but I am going to give you the quick version. Here is how things went down.

April 5th - Jake came home from work and felt sick. By the evening he had a high fever.

April 6th - Jake called off work in the wee hours of the morning because he felt awful. By the evening his fever was 104.7! It did respond to meds so we just thought it must be a virus.

April 7th - Jake went to the doctor's office. His temp was 104.1, the doc said he wanted to put him on Biaxin for "preventative measures".

April 8th - Jake slept most of the day but went to our small group that night. His fever was gone.

April 9th - Jake went to church. No fever. Taught Sunday School. Went out to lunch. Sunday night he got this HUGE headache.

April 10th - I got up went to work. When I got home Jake was laying on the couch. No lights were on, the blinds were closed....the kids were still in their pajamas. Elise had a poopy diaper and a diaper rash. I was upset with Jake and even got on to him about not taking better care of the kids. I was upset he didn't call me and tell me to come home if he was that sick. That night I was sitting on the couch, typing in my blog and Jake got up and started having these violent dry heaves. He was out of control. He finally fell on the ground and then threw up (I got a bucket under him just in time.) At that point I decided he was going to the Emergency Room. I called Justiene, who came over right away to watch the kids. We got to the ER at midnight.

I think I will stop right there for now...my next post will tell you all the crazy stuff that happened at the hospital. For now, I am glad to be back. Now, if I could just get the rest of you to type a post................................

Dear Jake,

You didn't have to go to such extremes to get out of watching Love Monkey. Next time please just tell me you'd rather not watch. You are lucky they didn't have VH1 at the Cleveland Clinic.

Love,
Delilah

Update....

Okay, I am very tired but I wanted to give an update.

Had some serious issues with the hospital and doctors we had been dealing with. I had a horrible day Sunday (a reflection of Jake's day) and made the decision to transfer him to Cleveland Clinic. Late in the afternoon Jake was transported to the new hospital where I have been told the Infectious Disease docs are the best in the world. So far things are great. The new docs pretty much validated what we suspected about the other hospital: Jake's case was a mess and the other doctors made some HUGE oversights and neglectful mistakes. When I have more energy I will give you the juicy details. I swear it could be a movie. For now we wait.... Tomorow we should know more. By the way, Jake has Viral Meningitis and Mastoiditis (and infection in the mastoid area- the bone behind the ear.) He is feeling better but we still have some mystries to solve. Hopefully tommorow we will get some answers and then Jake can go home soon.

Forgive any typos...I am tired.

Jake (revised)

Jake has Viral Meningtis. He is in the hospital. He is showing some improvement but has a terrible headache. They are giving him serious narcotics to help ease the pain. He has been poked and prodded, x-rayed and examined more than you can imagine. He is in "community isolation" right now, which means you have to wear a face mask if you visit. The meningitis is not contagious (from what they say). Some day when I have more time I will tell you about some stupid mistakes the nurses and doctors made that originally led to a misdiagnosis. He might be in for a while. I will try to keep you posted.

delilah

Watching "Beautiful Girls"...

This is the first time I have sat down and had a chance to write pretty much all week. I am sitting in the living room, on the lap top,watching a movie: Beautiful Girls. I love this movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

We have had a pretty rough week in the Miller household. The kids had a difficult time sleeping several nights this week. One night I didn't get to sleep until after 4 A.M. Luckily for me, I don't require a lot of sleep and I didn't have to work too early this week. My first class was at 10:50. Then Jake got sick. He is still not feeling 100%. He went to the doctor. I made him an appointment and he didn't even argue with me about it. He just went. I guess that tells you how bad he has been. He didn't go to work Thursday or Friday and pretty much has slept through the last few days. He did manage to make it to our small group this evening. He wasn't looking so hot by the end.

Today I took Jude, Elise and Indy to this Easter Party. We went with Melanie and her girls. It was a lot of fun. Then we all went to Heather's and colored eggs. It was cool. The kids had a great time.

Okay, I have to watch the rest of this movie. Have a great day!

LOVE MONKEY is Back!!!!

I am so excited. If you read the comments from yesterday's post you already know! Love Monkey was picked up by VH1! They are going to show all 8 episodes that were already filmed. They have not ordered any new ones (YET) but I am just so excited. I guess signing the petition worked! They are going to show the 3 already aired shows on April 11th and starting on the 18th they will have the new ones. I am so happy. Jake starts his new job on the 17th so he will be home to watch it with me!!!! I am sure he is ecstatic! I will keep you updated. Now I just have to figure out which channel that is...............

A Milestone....

We had a big milestone yesterday. Jude spent the night away from us last night. My mom is visiting and came to pick him up and took him to my sister's house to spend the night. He was very excited. It wasn't that bad. I was so busy anyways... I worked for the Diversion Program last night and I will be heading out to teach some classes in a couple of hours. He will be back after I get off work. I haven't heard how he did yet! Isn't it crazy, as parents we want a break from our children but when they are gone we miss them. I hope things went okay or my mom might not ever want to take him again! The next step will be letting him go with my parents or Jake's parents to stay out of state for a few days!

On another note...... If you read my comments you may have read that there was a comment on my last post about other people's blogs. It was a complaint about lack of posts. Hmmmm, who could they be talking about? Could it be YOU?

Okay, I have to run. I have to get ready for work and I have lots of cleaning to do. I am so behind.

My Heart...

I can't believe it has been three days since my last post. I have been so busy and didn't even really get to sit down to even look at the computer for more than 5 minutes at a time. And to be honest, I don't really have that much time right now. So, I'll TRY to be brief!

Some of you remember that last year, while pregnant with Elise, I had this little heart problem. I was at the zoo and talking to Jake on the phone. He told me he had just looked through our Respite kid, Justin's (who was with me) bag. He had found a big lighter (the kind you start a grill with) and a bunch of condoms. I don't think that had anything to do with what happened next but I told Jake I wasn't feeling so good and I had to go. I thought I was going to pass out. I told my sister and the next thing I know I am in an ambulance. They hooked me up to all these machines and told me my heart rate was 240! They told me they were going to give me a shot of medication that will stop my heart and restart it. I actually felt my heart stop and restart. It made me think, when people die of heart failure, they don't just pass out or whatever. They can feel their heart has stopped. They know they are going to die. It is crazy. Either way, I didn't die and I ended up being on this medication to help my heart rate for the remainder of my pregnancy. I went to see a cardiologist and he explained I have an extra electrical pathway in my heart and because of my pregnancy I had extra heart beats and any time you have even a few extras it can cause the "electrical pathway" to catch and it messes things all up. I thought it was odd because I was so much healthier weight wise with my pregnancy with Elise. Either way, I accepted what he said and that was that. He warned me I could have another "episode" at some point. Great. I went through the summer with basically no problems.

Back in October I started having some problems. I gained an unexpected 15-20 lbs. I really should have been losing weight because I went back to work and was eating much healthier. I still can't figure it out. Then I had this flushing problem in my face. It was like I was walking around embarrassed all the time. It drives me nuts. There was other stuff to...but I guess the only important symptom to tell you about it the heart palpitations. So, I go to more than one doctor (you can read a previous post about me firing one doctor) and no one can find anything wrong. It is so annoying. I know my body and something is amuck. Well, I finally decided to call my cardiologist because I almost passed out a couple of times and my heart was racing. So, I went to see him and he gave me this annoying monitor thing that I hook up to me and anytime I feel these palpitations I have to push this button and it makes this loud annoying noise. I am very sick of it. I have another week to go. So, this week end rolls around and I was busy. I had this conference I went to with my sister on Saturday (Moody Bible Women's Conference - it was great but too much crying, I felt drained afterwards). On the way to the thing I thought I was going to die. My heart was HURTING. I was sweating with a short sleeve shirt and no coat on. My heart was pounding. I felt like throwing up. That pretty much lasted through the day and into Sunday morning. I didn't go to church because Jude has puss coming out of his eyes and I didn't want to take him. When Jake got home, I told him I wanted to go to the hospital. I was having chest pain again and I wanted to make sure I wasn't dying. So, we went and 3 hours, an EKG, 5 vials of blood, 2 chest xrays and a whole lot of monitoring later....I went home. They told me I have a very healthy heart and my lungs are crystal clear. I am relieved to know I don't have congestive heart failure or heart disease BUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????? My resting heart rate is almost 100. I think my heart is beating so fast that it actually hurts. I don't know why. I have really laid off the caffeine. I am out of shape but not THAT out of shape. Please! I have two little kids, how could I be that out of shape? Either way, hopefully, we will get to the bottom of this soon. It is making me crazy. I had only told a few people before because it is embarrassing. But now, you all know.