Well, now I've gone and done it. . .

Good Morning All:

I'm posting this AM from the outpatient clinic at Hopkins. On Tuesday I told you all that I had a cold. In the early evening hours of the prior day my temperature sneaked above the 38-degrees celsius threshold (100.4 degrees farenheit) for being considered a fever worth worrying about. I posted a 38.1. This happened in about the 8th hour of a 9 or 10 hour day as an outpatient. They halted my blood transfusion fearing that I was having a reaction and they drew blood so they could culture it and learn whether there was infection worth worrying about.

On Tuesday evening I received a call at 10:00 Pm from the attending physician who informed me that one of the cultures had started to grow and he was toying with the idea of having me come in that night! I was able to dissuade him since my temperature had not since crept above the 38-degree threshold (it hadn't crept above that threshold prior to that measurement either) and since I had an outpatient appointment scheduled just 11 hours from the time of his call.

Wednesday's appointment saw me in radiology for a CT scan of my chest and sinuses (looking for sources of infection) and receiving a blood transfusion since they ruled out my having a reaction as the source of the elevated temperature. Also while I was there more details began to surface about the infection I have. From the culture they are pretty certain that I have a bacterial infection in one, or both, of my Hickman lines. This involves one regimen of antibiotics. Additionally, the CT scan revealed that my lungs had a "pre-pneumonia" condition where fluid was beginnning to build--no doubt from the cold I had been suffering through. This involves a second regimen of antibiotics.

Both of these regimen require medication that is infused intravenously and a new set of procedures, skills, etc at home. Marla and I will be getting less sleep than normal over the next two weeks so if we look or sound tired and/or grumpy please cut us some slack.

For what it is worth I woke up this morning having no elevated temperature at all, less of a runny nose, and fewer coughs. Hopefully the cold is pretty well behind me and the treatment of these infections is as academic as the nurses make it sound . . .

--Russ.