Aggravated!

Most of you probably know by now that John is back in the Hospital - Hershey Medical Center.  We had to leave suddenly by ambulance.  We've been here since Friday.

This admission has been so frustrating.  I am not going to go into too much except to say this.  One oncologist believes John's pneumonia is still really bad and wants him to stay in the hospital, the other one insists he leave tomorrow (Monday).  So we will probably be leaving on Monday and getting home Monday night.  The doctor who insists that John doesn't have pneumonia, or not much of it, won't let any tests be run, won't let the other doctor do an x-ray or CT scan, and discontinued John's antibiotics for his pneumonia that was started by Dr. Claxton about a week ago.  You do NOT discontinue a course of antibiotics.  Even if somebody is feeling better they are supposed to take them until they are gone, because the illness can come back.  Everybody knows that, especially a doctor.  I wonder what he is doing.  Why does he keep insisting John doesn't have pneumonia?  He keeps telling him, you must have pulled a muscle or fractured a rib.  Meanwhile, the hospital that sent John up in the ambulance assesed him with an x-ray and determined he still had pneumonia.  Also a week ago on Monday Dr. Claxton took an x-ray, and read it, and said that John had pneumonia and fluid on his lung.  But Dr. E. insists it is a pulled muscle instead.  He told the other oncologist he could run tests in the morning, and then in the afternoon stopped him from doing so, then told him John was going home Monday morning.  So unless something drastically changes, we will be coming home.

Another reason John came up here besides the pneumonia (which by the way hurts him at a level of 8, on a pain scale of 1 - 10, 10 being the worst pain he has had in his life), is the fact that he needed blood again.  But not a little bit.  Four bags!  Yes, four bags in one day.  He was white as a ghost when he got to the hospital.  He had gotten blood one week prior, and he needed four bags instead of two this time.  To those of you who understand counts, his HGB was 6 and his HCT was 17, after getting blood one week earlier.  Folks, that is close to what he was when he was first in the hospital with the Hemolytic Anemia.  And according to Dr. Claxton, he is supposed to be getting better.  So sad.  But the odd thing is this.  On the tests they ran this hospital stay, John IS getting better.  So they can't figure out why he needs the blood.  They can't understand what is going on.  I guess what they checked for is getting better, something else must be going wrong.  Now they have to find out what it is and correct it.  But they are puzzled.

Never ending.  Never ending.

I am a little concerned about John going home, because I don't want him to have to turn around and be hospitalized again in a week.  I am excited though that we may have a Thanksgiving at home, and am hoping to stay home for December and Christmas.  John's parents are coming for Christmas.  And I have so much planned for fun.

John has an appointment with Dr. Claxton in a week from Monday (that's one more week).  So at least he will get the CT scan and maybe Dr. Claxton will give him some more antibiotics, who knows.  I'm sure Dr. Claxton will make a good decision.  I feel much more comforted knowing John will have this appointment next week.

Okay, I am making this entry a little too long.  Oh, one more thing, LOL.  John is receiving an award from our local cancer group tomorrow.  He won't be there to be able to pick it up, but they are going to pick it up and deliver it to him in a few days.  It will be presented during a Thanksgiving dinner.  I wrote something up to be read at the dinner in honor of John and emailed it to the Executive Director of the group for her to read to everybody before the award is given out.  I think I wrote a pretty good speech, LOL.  Anyway, they picked John this year to give it to because he is a fighter and a survivor, and because he has a good attitude.  I am so proud of him!

Okay, got to get off of here.  I just wanted to tell you all to go to There is a Season to see all the Photo Scav Hunt links (for the subject ART).  Also go there to find the Monday Morning Question and the subject for the next Photo Scav Hunt.  My sister Val is graciously doing it for me while I am in Hershey.  She is the best!

Okay, must run, love you all, Krissy :)