Marshall Jones’ MRSA Story

We have passed the 2 week mark now. Marshall had a ROUGH day today, he has been very very lightheaded today, and a little bit over the weekend. His blood pressure this morning was 138/100 and his temperature was 94.6, and I took it several times. Very weird. He took a hot shower and drank some coffee. We went to see Dr. Daftarian after lunch, and everything was pretty much back to normal. He has gained a few pounds, and is up to 200.

It is our anniversary today, and would you believe he managed to send me flowers? He is so thoughtful, and precious to me, I am so thankful he is still with me.

Yesterday (Saturday), Marshall went out with his father for 2 hours to check on the cattle. I think getting outdoors helps him a little. He still doesn’t want any of our animals anywhere near him. This is hard, as we have about 10 cats who dearly love (and miss!) him. He isn’t very interested in the dogs either.

He is eating better, I even got him to eat Dad’s quiche (Marshall does not eat quiche–man thing). Dad makes the BEST quiche!

I went with Dad today to take Kathy and Rachel back to the airport. It was nice to see them while they were here. Marshall was alone from 12:30-8 pm. His father and Eric came by to check on him, but he did well. He urinated on his own twice while I was gone–he says it is getting easier, but he still has to take lots of time to “talk it out.” LOL

His headaches are coming back–prior to his illness, he had frequent headaches that have been gone since the illness.

All of his vitals have geen good over the weekend, his temperature seems to be staying around 97.5-98 degrees. I don’t know what that means.

Marshall is still doing pretty well, considering.

He is still very nauseous. We are trying Gas-X, and it seems to be helping. He is eating mostly soup today. His temperature has been low (97.6, 97.9), and his sugar a little high (150-160). He still looks like a strong breeze will blow him away.

We had a great day today. Kathy and Rachel were here (and Dad, of course), Rick and Selina were here as well. I invited my inlaws (CB and Jeanette), but they didn’t come.

Marshall socialized a little bit today, and ate 2 big plates full of food. I guess we should have a Thanksgiving dinner every day.

We are so thankful this year for so many things. Our health, first and foremost, and our family and friends that we would not have made it this far without.

Saw Dr. Daftarian this morning. She added Nexium and Bextra for his stomach problems and his pain, respectively, and added another Glucophage (horse pill) for his diabetes.

I decided to keep a chart of all of the things that I am watching in Marshall, it will be much easier this way, I think. My chart has 10 columns across the top, with these headings:
Time
BG (blood glucose)
BP (blood pressure)
Heart Rate
Temperature
Meds
Insulin
Void (normal urine output)
Cath (catheter urine output)
Other (food, feelings, ect..)

Dad’s wife and daughter (Kathy and Rachel) are coming for Thanksgiving. He has to pick them up in Houston (Hobby) tonight.

Marshall has been doing pretty well, about the same as the last few days.

Well, we have been out of the hospital for a week, and things are still looking up. Heart rate is much better (90-105), sugar is still high (Zyvox?), fever is gone (thank God!).

Tried to make an appointment with Dr. Young today (urologist), and, naturally, there are 2 brothers sharing the same office. Do I know which one he saw? Of course not. Can their office tell me? Nope. We saw Dr. Daftarian today, does she know? Of course not. So, I took a stab at it. We will see if I got it right in a couple of weeks when we go. I guess we will be catheterizing him until then. I am sure he is thrilled about that.

He is still feeling nauseous. I have researched all of his medications, and tried to highlight drug interactions, and food interactions that could be making him sickly. We have to watch other drugs and lots of foods (cheese–which he loves/lives on) and hopefully this will help his nausea, not to mention make his medications work more properly. He is on Toprol XL for his blood pressure (which might be elevated due to his bacterial endocarditis), Glucophage XL and Glipizide for his diabetes, Tylenol 3 for his pain, Zyvox for his infection, phenergan for his nausea, Zanaflex (muscle relaxant), and Ambien to keep his sleep regulated better. I am pretty sure that Ambien isn’t working, it allows him a few hours of sleep, then he pops awake. But he is hard headed and wont listen to me about that. I will bring it up at Dr. D.’s next appointment.

Things are better today. Fever is down, heart rate is down (107). Back still hurts alot.

We are running out of Zyvox and Phenergan already. I must come up with a better system for keeping track of medications. Will put that on my Walgreens list.

The new mattress showed up about 10pm last night. Hallelujah!

We managed to get him into it last night, even though he didn’t really want to move. That thing feels like sleeping on cardboard, it is definitely not the same mattress as Zoe’s, but oh well. It is firm, and that is what I was looking for. I will go get an eggshell cover, or feather bed to put on it tomorrow.

Marshall’s day was better today. I set up his first appointment with Dr. Lemos (Infectious Disease) for Tuesday, Nov. 30th at 10:15 am.

He still has a mild fever (100), and his heart rate is still high (133-143 all day). I wish I knew what was going on in his body.

Dr. Daftarian put him on phenergan 20 minutes before he takes all of his medications, in hopes that his nausea will subside.

I picked up his handicapped tags today-that is a ridiculous process that is a pain in the rump. The doctor has to write just exactly the required words on the prescription, or they will not give it to you. We had to get our prescription updated because Dr. Daftarian did not write the exact word TEMPORARY on it, rather she wrote “6 months” on it. Ridiculous. Do people fraudulently apply for those things so frequently that they have to keep them under lock and key like gold treasure? Maybe they should move that department to the bank…

We went to see Dr. Daftarian today, finally. It is still pouring down rain, but I think even Marshall was ready to get there today. All of us thought that he wouldn’t come back from her office today, that she would put him right back into the hospital, but she didn’t. She wants him to go to physical therapy so badly, but our insurance won’t cover it, and we just dont have the money to spend, unless he really needs it. He is very strong willed, I don’t worry that he will work himself back to health.

She removed his pic line from his neck, and sent it off to the lab for culturing. I hope his fever will go away now that that thing is out of his neck.

Eric had to come help us get him to the doctor, he had to carry Marshall to the car, it was so sad. He weighed 195 pounds. I got the Suburban stuck in the front yard when I drove up to get Marshall, the ground is super saturated with water. That is wintertime in Texas!

I ordered a new mattress this morning, hopefully it will be delivered today. I bought it sight unseen (unlaid?) from the place that made Zoe’s mattress (very comfortable). So who knows. It will be better than what we have, I know that, and I just don’t have time to go lay around in mattress stores! If it is horrid, we can get another one at a later date.

Dad is still here, he is cooking up a storm filling up our freezers (as if they are not already overflowing!). I asked him if he wanted to bring his wife and daughter here for Thanksgiving, as it looks like he will not be home by then. He is thinking about that.

I think he is getting days and nights mixed up again. He has been sleeping all day, his groin is still hurting but he says it is not as bad as it was. Still no physical therapy though.

I did manage to get him to sleep in Zoe’s bed, as he pulled the opposite groin muscle in our bed. He said he was feeling better almost immediately. I am ordering a new mattress today, I don’t care what he says.

We cancelled the first appointment with Dr. Daftarian-it is POURING down rain outside, and he can’t hardly move. I disagreed with doing that, but even as weak as he is, he will not go, and there is nothing I can do about it. We ARE going tomorrow, rain or shine.

He ate some chicken and dumplings and grapes for dinner, that was about it for the day. He did a teensy bit of exercising, about 5 minutes, but just in the bed. He is totally bedridden.

BP is good, Cath is good, he has a low grade fever (100).

It is my brother’s birthday, I managed to squeak in a phone call.

He threw up right after taking his nausea pill. I hope he isn’t going to throw up his $50/pill antibiotics. He still has the lumps in his lower back. I still don’t know if they are infection abcesses or bunched up muscles. I can’t wait to go back to the doctor. I think Marshall is ready too. They may put us right back into the hospital. He is not doing well at all at home.