karenulijohn

The side effects that I reported in my last blog have continued unabated.  Harvey began to experience chills and fever along with abdominal discomfort and gastric problems.  The smallest task drains him of what energy he does have, and he must lie down.  He sleeps for hours at a time and has complained that he wants this to “be over.”  Yesterday, he went to lay on the bed, and he could not get warm.  In fact, he was shivering, so I piled on blankets and covers until he cried “uncle.”  He finally got warm, but when I checked on him again, he was abnormally hot.  His temperature had soared to 104 degrees F.  He insisted that I go to my massage appointment, which I did, but the entire time, I kept thinking about what he was experiencing.  Finally it came to me.  He was following the same path as when he had cellulitis.  When I got home, I insisted that he call the on-call Doctor and tell him what was happening.

We spoke to Dr. Reddy, a colleague of Dr. Colbourn.  He asked a couple of questions, to which Harvey gave monosyllabic answers that really did not adequately answer the questions.  Dr. Reddy began to say that we should watch the temperature for a couple of days, and if it doesn’t retreat, to call him again.  At this point, I could not hold back.  I interrupted the conversation, saying that this had been going on for over a week, and I described what had occurred after the last infusion, mentioning the cellulitis in Harvey’s toe.  That got his attention.  I continued to tell him that though we can see no outward signs of an infection, his symptoms are following the same track as before.  To make a long story short, he prescribed a quinolone antibiotic to be taken daily by mouth for ten days.  We are hopeful that Harvey will begin to feel better in the next day or two.

Our lives have changed dramatically, particularly in these last few weeks.  It’s very quiet around here except for the television which I keep on for company.  Today was my last Sunday playing for the Grace Lutheran Church in town, and Harvey didn’t feel well enough to attend with me this morning.  After the service, one of our neighbors mentioned that he noticed one of our sprinkler heads was broken, and a geyser of water was springing up on the side of the house.  He even offered to come over later to fix it.  Of course, I thanked him profusely, declined the offer, but told him how grateful I was that he had discovered something that needed fixing.  If there was anything that could get Harvey to spring into action, it was the need to fix something.  Sure enough, he worked himself up to go out and dig up the offending sprinkler head, and replace it.  He was so happy.  Now he is sleeping the sleep of the just!

Next weekend, we are planning to drive to the Bay Area to celebrate our granddaughter’s 16th birthday and our grandson’s graduation from middle school.  I am hoping Harvey will feel well enough to go shopping for some clothes that fit.  He has lost about 35 pounds and all of his clothes are kind of droopy.  He said that, instead of “achy, breaky heart” he is a “saggy, baggy fart.”  I love that self-deprecating sense of humor!