ER #19/#3

This morning at 2:17 a.m. I got a call from Nurse Sharmayne from Maunalani; Dad had a fever of 101 degrees F. Per their protocol, they were calling for an ambulance to take him to the emergency room. This is the 19th emergency room visit that I have made since June 12, 2016, and the 3rd for this year.


Nurse Sharmayne called me after the ambulance left Maunalani. I got to Kaiser Moanalua before the ambulance did, partly because the freeway was so deserted and partly because the ambulance had to make its way down the hillside. In all my visits to the ER at Moanalua, I have never seen an empty ER waiting room. Dad arrived about 10 minutes after I did; I was able to get in to sit with him about 10 minutes later after he was settled in.  

I had called Curtis shortly after Nurse Sharmayne's first call and later sent him a text about what room Dad was in and what tests they were starting. He brought breakfast to the ER for our Tuesday morning breakfast! He had the Sausage Burrito, I had the Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit with a side of Hash Browns.


Dad had more blood drawn, including for another blood culture, a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, and an EKG; he is also scheduled for an MRI. Dr. Eron, from the infectious disease department, came by with Dr. Perera, to see how Dad was doing. Dad's white blood cell count had gone down from 40,000 units when he was initially admitted in early March, to about 25,000; while it was closer to normal, it was still too high. Dr. Eron is going to check for an infection in Dad's heart, in the meanwhile they are changing his antibiotic to Daptomycin, they think the fever might be a sensitivity reaction to the Ceftriaxone.

There were so many people who had come to the ER that needed to be admitted to the hospital since Dad got there, that they were opening up another wing and were busy calling in more staff so they could get set up for patients; by 3:45 p.m. he had been moved to a hospital room. I had left about half an hour earlier to go home and sleep. But before I could get to sleep I got a call from Cynthia at Maunalani. Because we have no firm date that Dad will be released, he will be officially discharged. She said when he is ready to come back, they will take him in. I will go in tomorrow to pick up Dad's belongings.

The Ikaika 'ohana landed this afternoon & got the news that Dad is back in the hospital. Depending when he gets out, some of their Easter plans might change; they were planning on visiting him at Maunalani.

Happy Birthday to Andreas!