ER #21&22/#5&6

Dad went to the emergency room again today. Twice. This morning when Curtis was with him he began violently shivering but he had no fever; the Maunalani nurse called 911 to get an ambulance there. Because an ambulance was called, the EMTs needed to take Dad to the closest facility with space, which was Straub Clinic. That's where I met them after I was done with my volunteer bird transport. (More on that later.)

Just before the ambulance left Maunalani the EMTS found that Dad now had a 102 degree F fever. While at Straub they found that Dad's white blood cell count was up again and his blood pressure was too low, 64/40 mmHg at the lowest. Dr. Watanabe wanted to stabilize his blood pressure before transferring Dad to Kaiser. Nurses Tiara & Steve gave him almost 2 liters of fluids intravenously at a very fast rate; but that didn't help. So they gave him norepinephrine and that worked! It took Dr. Watanabe  about an hour to get Kaiser to accept the transfer; Dr. Tam Sing, whom Dad saw 2 days ago in the Kaiser ER, approved the transfer.

This sleeve was wrapped around the IV bag & pumped up to force the fluids through the IV line faster.

The EMTs from AMR arrived (not the same crew that took Dad to the ER on Easter) and we headed off to Kaiser. But it was rush hour and took us an hour to get there; it usually takes 30 minutes. Dr. Boonprakong was Dad's ER doctor today; she checked out Dad's vitals, asked some questions, and continued the norepinephrine to keep his blood pressure up. More tests and another x-ray were done to track down the source of the infection.


We saw Dr. Tam Sing and thanked him for accepting the transfer for Dad. On the previous ER trip, he had mentioned to Dad that he lived near Maunalani, it turns out he can see Maunalani from his house and said he wants to go to Maunalani when its his time to be checked in to a nursing home. I told him when I go to visit Dad, I would wave to him when I drive by and see him walking his dog.

We ate dinner at the Sunrise Cafe. The Chicken Tatsuage sounded good, but it wasn't. On the plus side the chicken would be a compliment to any type of sauce you wanted to use on it; on the negative side it was so bland and boring you really needed a good sauce to pull it off.


Dr. Lee from Intensive Care Unit 5 came to check on Dad, he admitted Dad to the ICU. He said their goals will be to figure out what is causing Dad's fever & getting his blood pressure stabilized. The actual transfer occurred at about 8 pm.We met Luis who will be Dad's nurse over night. Dad was sleeping peacefully when we left.

I went directly to Maunalani to pick up Dad's things from his room. I saw RN Young and CNAs Lenie & Dessie; I filled them in on what's happening with Dad. I'll check in with Cynthia tomorrow and also let her know what's happening.

While we were at Straub, waiting for the transfer to Kaiser, we overheard a couple of conversations from the patients on either side of Dad; Straub's Trauma Unit doesn't have walls, just curtains. We heard the staff talking about new patients coming in from an explosion that occurred in Palolo, they said some of the victims went to Queen's, the others were coming to Straub; we expected it to get very busy. To our relief, they only got 1 patient; there were a total of 3 people needing medical attention. We overheard the fellow in the next exam room saying he was on the 1st floor, while the explosion occurred on the 2nd floor; he didn't have any burns or smoke inhalation but he was having breathing issues. It was on the news, but we had some inside info that wasn't on the news!

(Screen shot from Hawaii News Now)

(Screen shot from Hawaii News Now)

This is the fellow that was in the adjacent exam room. (Screen shot from Hawaii News Now)

The other conversation we overheard was of a woman who was brought in throwing up and having other problems. It turns out she was overdosing on illegal drugs. It sounded like she still had some on her; the doctors called the police.

The plan earlier in the day was for Xander to go to Maunalani and visit with Dad. I would take him up in a carrier with a harness and leash on. We would let him spend some time with Dad. Then Curtis would drop him off at the house when he left Maunalani. Of course, none of that happened. We'll have to schedule it for after Dad returns.

Today is Tuesday so it is breakfast day. We went to Bob's Big Bear Restaurant. Curtis had the Corned Beef Hash & Eggs; I had the Hawaiian Breakfast. I'm not really sure why its called the Hawaiian Breakfast, its got pork chops and fried bananas; it would be more Hawaiian if it was kalua pig. We noticed that there was a sign that said, "Kids or Slim Seating". As we left I went over and measured the space, it was 13 to 14 inches wide; the regular booths have 16 inches of space. Curtis will be using this as incentive to lose weight.

I sent a photo of this to Suzanne, so Manu could try this variation of oxtail soup.

Corned Beef Hash & Eggs.

Hawaiian Breakfast.

Photos of people who ate the 1 pound burger, 3 eggs, & rice that the Sumo Loco Moco is made of.

After breakfast, I went to Feather & Fur to pick up a tropic bird and a white tern for transport to the Hawai'i Wildlife Center (HWC). When I went to the State Agriculture Inspection office at the airport to get the birds inspected, the inspectors thought I was from the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), like the guy that had just left. I caught up with the guy at the Hawaiian Air Cargo office; he was dropping off 2 Manu-o-ku chicks for the HWC & there are 3 more forms we have to fill out now. It turns out Keith does work for FWS, as an enforcement agent. He was also picking up 2 young Manu-o-ku that needed time to exercise their wings before they are released; he just completed building a flight at his house for the birds. I got myself an invitation to check out the manu-o-ku and attend the Manu-o-Ku Festival in May.

Juvenile tropic bird (Phaethon sp.)

Young manu-o-ku (Gygis alba).

Happy Birthday to Debi!