Chandra's Journal
February 9, 2006
Well, it was fun while it lasted… basking in the afterglow of Canon’s successful transplant, feeling removed, if not immune to the catastrophes of life. Now Drew’s in the hospital. Of the four of us, I suppose he was due for a turn at medical drama.
Forgive me if I’m short tonight, it’s after midnight and I’m exhausted. But I’ll try to get the basic facts out there for now.
It’s his right foot from his toes all the way to his knee. The current diagnosis is staph cellulitis. I say “current” because a week ago the doctor told us it was probably gout. That was Thursday. He had been mentioning that his foot was hurting for about a week. But when he came back from Canon’s appointment in Houston last week, it was obviously swollen and he was limping from the pain. He kept saying that he didn’t do anything to it, nothing to sprain, twist, or bruise it. So I convinced him to make an appointment on Thursday. Our family doctor thought it looked like he might have gout, so he prescribed an anti-inflammatory. I think from the beginning that diagnosis didn’t feel quite right to either of us. We were just like, “Hmm… gout… o-kay.” Anyway, he went about his regular schedule, even did a big welding job on Saturday, and each day it got worse.
On Sunday, he climbed the stairs to the balcony at church holding Canon and it wiped him out for hours. That afternoon he went to Mark’s house to hang out with some guys from school before the Superbowl. He came back home a couple of hours later to take me and the boys to Tony and Amber’s house to hang out with some people over there. At first he crashed on the couch and mentioned that he might just need to stay home and put his foot up. I was whiney about wanting him to come with us… of course I feel like the biggest heel now! Anyway, we stopped at Mark’s house on the way there so Drew could borrow his crutches for a while because he just could hardly put weight on it anymore. Then at Tony and Amber’s house, all he could do was just find a spot on the couch, put his foot up and try to keep up with conversation here and there. I checked in on him a few times while we there and could tell he was in pretty serious pain. By the time we left, our friends there were pretty worried about him, too. On the way home I asked him questions about the game (because the other girls and I just tried to keep up with the kids and visited the whole time). He pretty much just told me that he had no idea what had happened in the game. Now, anyone who knows Drew knows that there was a big problem there. If he can’t give you a play-by-play, something’s seriously wrong. That was when I started to get worried. He knew also at that point that he would not be able to work the next day.
On Monday morning he made another doctor’s appointment. He is not one to disagree with an educated medical opinion, but what he was given was clearly not helping him at all. There were red streaks reaching from his ankle up the middle of his calf and the pain was spreading also. At about 10:15, I was loading up the boys to take them to Rhonda’s house and go to school and Drew was getting ready for his 10:30 appointment. Suddenly I heard him wince from down the hall. “Call your school,” he said. “I need your help; I can’t drive myself to the doctor.” So that morning the doctor agreed that the anti-inflammatory was not working and saw that in fact whatever it was was spreading up his leg. He then decided it had to be a bacterial infection and prescribed in-office antibiotic shots for three days in a row and gave him some pain medication as well. I took Drew home, fixed him up a spot on the couch, and went to school feeling better about the situation.
Monday night, Drew didn’t move a muscle from the time the boys and I got home around 5:00 until I tried to help him from the couch to bed at 11:00. He was feverish but wanted more blankets. He could not eat and only drifted in and out of sleep all evening. He was so afraid of not just bearing weight on his foot, but simply letting gravity pull down on his leg, that he opted to crawl down the hallway instead of leaning on me and walking. That scared me.
The next morning, everybody got in the car about 10:00. Drew was going to get his second shot, the boys were going to Rhonda’s, and I would go to school after I took Drew back home. That was the plan anyway. When the doctor saw that Drew’s ankle had only gotten worse (now very purple and more swollen), he didn’t waste any time deciding to admit him to the hospital. So we spent the Tuesday lunch hour checking in to Northwest.
Initially, they were telling us he would be there for 2-3 days, but that was when they thought the IV antibiotics would just work miracles the first day. They told us we would see lots of improvement quickly and we didn’t. He started running fever yesterday; he couldn’t be upright without getting nauseous and his leg looked the same. Today was better. Drew called me this morning happy to report that he could see the bone on the outside of his ankle again! Also, his blood work came back indicating that the staph bacteria is not in his bloodstream. Thank God. Some of the swelling has gone down and that’s a huge blessing. We still have a ways to go. I can tell he still feels miserable. One clue is that every time I have walked in his room, the TV is off. Now the Drew I know and love would be taking advantage of a TV to himself without his wife wanting to watch American Idol and his toddler wanting to watch Veggie Tales (a welcome new request from Canon) to catch up with ESPN. He is not himself yet. Hmm. I’m remembering how frustrating it was to watch Canon lying in the PICU room in Houston not wanting to talk or play or do anything. It’s the same with the big boys, too! I’m just ready to have him back to normal.
Canon’s transplant team in Houston is aware of the situation and is encouraging a lot of caution where Canon is concerned. Of course I’m not bringing either one of them to the hospital at all. But even after Drew comes home, I have a feeling that he will not be able to be around Canon very much at all. Staph is a pretty scary bug and it’s the last thing that Canon needs. I’m still not very clear on how to take care of everybody, but we’ll be crossing that bridge before too long.
Charlie and Linda are coming up tomorrow to help out. I know they’re anxious to see Drew for themselves; I would be. It’s going to be a lot easier with them here.
Chandra Perkins