ER – Emergency Redo

Well, we went back to the ER the night of Monday, Feb 10. Art had a slight pain in his right calf, shortness of breath, and an elevated heart rate. (We’ve been saying we have been joining Art with sympathy pains, first with hiccups and now with cramps in our legs.) We consulted with a doctor friend who recommended that we go to the ER to check for blood clots (since cancer causes the blood to thicken), whether pneumonia was brewing or, worse yet, that the cancer had spread to the lungs. 

(Side note: You know you’ve been to the ER too many times when you recognize the doctors, the staff tells you that you look familiar, and you know how to operate the hospital bed when it’s not plugged in.) 

An ultrasound of the leg and CT of the lungs revealed blood clots in the leg and small clots on both lungs. Thank God it wasn’t the worst-case scenario. Art was prescribed blood thinners for treatment, but it also required admission to the hospital. I sent the others home at 3:45 am to get some rest. We ended up being in the ER until late in the afternoon on Tuesday waiting for a bed. According to Fitbit, I got zero sleep.  According to me, I was up for 38 hours straight. 

The staff on this tour have been exceptional in working with our situation and requests. Art was seen by a different oncologist, Dr. K, from HOPE SoPas, who is awesome. A blood transfusion was ordered this morning, but all the attending medical staff knew we were trying to make the consult at HOPE today, and they did their best to make it happen. But, God had other plans, and we had to cancel the consult. When trying to reschedule the appointment, we were told that the next available for ANY HOPE doctors was March 3! That was way too far out so we instead made a new consult appointment with an oncologist in the same office as Dr. K for this Friday. Meanwhile, the hospital nurse reached out to Dr. K to see if getting the next chemo treatment here in the hospital could be an option, and he said that as long as there’s no infection, we could. Preliminary blood culture results should be available tomorrow with treatment beginning as early as tomorrow as well.

When I had first shared Art’s diagnosis with a dear friend, while she was praying for him, she had a picture of a line of people holding hands as if they were playing “Follow the Leader.” Art was holding the Leader’s hand, I was holding Art’s and the family after me. The line was moving, “snaking around” (it is the year of the snake after all), not going in a straight direction. Art was holding on tightly to the line leader. The line leader must be Jesus, and Art is holding tightly to his hand. It has not been a straight path in getting the second treatment or getting into HOPE, but we are holding on tightly that He will get us there. His presence and favor are with us even during this difficult time.

“The Lord was with Art.” –Genesis 39:2

Praises:

• We have doctor friends we can call on to advise us when we don’t know what to do. It’s like having concierge doctors.
• Last time we were at the ER, there was a limit of one visitor at a time, but this time we were allowed two. This allowed us to have a rotation of resting and caregiving.
• The ER doctor thanked us for allowing him to be a part of our experience. 
• Blood clots can be easily treated with blood thinners.
• Neal has been taking care of things around the house like dishes and laundry so we don’t have to when we get back from the hospital, and we can get more rest.
• Art has maintained his sense of humor. When the nurse was taking photos of his port for his chart, he told her jokingly, “no posting these photos on social media.” Another time, the nurse had asked about his pain on a scale of 1-10; he initially responded with a 2, but quickly changed that to a 4 to tease the PCA who was helping remove some bandages that were sticking to his skin.
• Amazing staff, and we got another visit from Beau!

Prayer requests:

• No infection.
• Increased energy, and the building up of red blood cells.
• Chemo to take place in the hospital soon and that Art will press through the side effects.