Jim's condition

Ok, I have some things to let everyone know about. This has been a very stressful and busy week for me.

Last Saturday, Feb 12, my husband Jim and I were playing our usual DnD game with some friends here in town. All that morning Jim had been feeling decidedly odd. Apparently that afternoon his heart switched over from beating normally to atrial fibrillation and we did not know this because he had no history of heart fibrillation at all. He became lightheaded, weak and dizzy, but had no chest pain at all nor any nauseousness. There was no tingling in his arms or legs and no headaches or vomiting. Through the weekend he continued to feel lightheaded but felt a little better by Monday morning, even with the symptoms of a head cold and coughing with some congestion.

Monday morning we called his primary doctor who could not be reached until then anyway, since most of his care is through the Department of Veterans Affairs. They had him come in right away to the smaller VA Outreach Clinic here in town to draw blood for testing, and like me, were suspecting that since he had been losing weight that he probably needed medication re-evaluation. They found after the blood draw that everything was normal although he had lost 2 grams of hemoglobin which indicated blood loss somewhere, and most probably from somewhere in his colon. Polyps, tiny tears or fissures, and yes the dreaded colon cancer, can all cause this type of blood loss.

They had him come back to do some more testing Thursday afternoon, Feb 17. They planned to take his blood pressure sitting, standing and laying down. But first they decided to do another EKG of his heart to compare to the one he'd had done Feb 2 of this year. Lo and behold, that was when we discovered the a-fib and why he'd been feeling so bad.

They sent Jim via ambulance to the local emergency room, after making sure to let both of us know that since this was being done through the VA with Jim as a 'fee based patient' we would not be charged a dime and the VA would pick up the tab for the whole thing. They did not want to risk Jim's heart condition on a longer trip to a larger VA facility. Relieving Jim of the financial worry proved very beneficial. He was nervous and a bit fearful, but I kept assuring him it would all be all right now that we finally knew for sure what was going on with him. He kept trying to worry about other things anyway and I and the hospital staff have been very insistent that relaxing and concentrating on recovery would be the priority now.

In the ER at Heartland Health, Jim's heart rate was pounding away at 174 beats per minute, and that was with him laying down. Late that evening, when more of the same heart medicine was used through IV drip all the rest of the day, his heart rate finally dropped down far enough and abruptly his heart switched over into a more healthy rhythm on its own. We do not yet know if it will stay that way. Thank God he did not have to have his heart shocked to try to get a normal rhythm.

Since Heartland hospital had succeeded in stabilizing Jim, Friday evening he was taken via ambulance without incident to the ICU ward at the VA Medical Center in Leavenworth KS. There he is being closely being monitored for any changes and the nursing staff in the ICU is top notch. Right now we are in sort of a holding pattern until Tuesday, being as how this is a government medical facility what with the weekend and Monday being a federal holiday.

Come Tuesday I will be in Leavenworth and basically offline. I have no idea how long this will take, nor any ideas for sure about what procedures they will want to do. We were told it could be two weeks before Jim came home, but that was just a guess. I know they will want to do testing and scans and lots of blood workups. They will probably be testing to see what Jim will be able to tolerate.

I have no idea if they will try to insist on surgery. After the other medical fiascoes Jim has had with the VA, we are very wary of them cracking open his chest to do any surgeries. I will personally be checking credentials as much as possible before I allow any doctor fresh out of med school working on his residency to cut on my husband.

In the meantime, I am asking that your prayers and good wishes be sent Jim's way. He has always been a very faithful loving husband to me and deserves any support he can get. We have no family here to depend on in this part of the country. Any cards or flowers you might wish to send can be sent to the following address for Jim:

VA Medical Center ICU
4101 S. 4th St., Trafficway,
Leavenworth, KS 66048

Sheila,

Both you and Jim will be in my prayers!!

SilverShadow

Hope all goes well for you and Jim.

Update:

This past Feb 25, Friday morning, Jim called me from the VA Medical Center in Leavenworth to tell me that the hospital was releasing him, suddenly and without any warning. They insisted that he was well enough to continue to recover at home now, even though he still had a urinary bladder infection and appeared to be getting over that and his respiratory issues had improved.

Since a goodly part of the midwest US region had a huge blizzard the day before on Thursday, the highways were not well plowed yet. I was not even sure I could get our van out of the driveway easily as it rides somewhat low to the ground and it had snowed almost two feet. I did a whole lot of snow shoveling very quickly to pull the van out of our driveway. There was a lot of snow but it was still fluffy and without thick underlying ice.

At that point, Jim had no clothes of his own to wear, no shoes or boots of any kind, and no coat or any outside clothing to keep warm. This is February for heaven's sakes! It's midwinter here with bad road conditions. It sounded to me as though they were going to release him and send him home basically naked with little more than a hospital gown and possibly a blanket, holding a plastic urinal. I was very angry about this and insisted to the hospital staff that I was going to get there with his clothes, shoes and a coat and hat, come hell or high water. I found a friend to come with me, knowing I might need an extra hand to do things like keeping an eye on our coats and pick up meds and whatnot.

Interstate 29 was a horrid sloppy mess with even the big semi-trailer trucks doing well under the speed limit. Much of it had not yet been plowed and it was starting to melt off, making it slushy and slick. Normally it takes about an hour to reach Leavenworth KS but it took almost two hours and I nervously found myself counting cars in accidents and others being towed off the interstate. Oddly, the smaller narrower two lane Missouri state highways were in better shape and had been well plowed and salted; they were even fairly dry.

They had Jim dressed in what amounted to thin cotton pajamas. I believe they were going to send him home dressed that way even with two feet of snow on the ground with no shoes or coat. I remained unimpressed by this.

The upshot of all this is that Jim is doing better and we all got back home in one piece, rather than in discreet pieces. I can be online again, but I get interrupted a lot. I have been insisting to Jim that he can be responsible for quite a bit on his own since he is not helpless and can ambulate very easily. He had gotten a little spoiled being waited on hand and foot at the hospital, but he still is happier to be home.

I will probably have to leave Myths suddenly at times; my apologies to you all ahead of time now for that. Be patient with me. Jim has been feeling kinda insecure about a lot of this and though he does not have an indwelling urinary catheter at this point, he has had a lot of urinary issues that sometimes have to be dealt with quickly.

My head cold that Jim so generously decided to share with me is almost gone. Once Jim was getting better, I started sleeping better myself. Even with the urinary issues, its still nicer to have him home. I have missed him so much. The house felt terribly incomplete without him.

I also wanted to thank you all for your prayers and support for us, both here on the forums and on Myths. I and Jim both deeply appreciate your good wishes and we hope he will be well and back to his old self very quickly. Hugs to all!

Thats great news Sheila, happy Jim is back home with you !!

Ok, new update:

After being home for the weekend, Jim developed what we found later to be a blood infection of bacteria. He began vomiting and having profuse diarrhea. Due to so much loss of water and electrolytes, his BP dropped dangerously low, all the way down to 67 over 35. They admitted him into Heartland Hospital on Monday Feb 28 and he is slowly improving due to the atrial fibrillation having to be carefully monitored and his drugs having to be juggled.

The ER doctor suspected that Jim may have contracted some sort of flu due to having had so many antibiotics. The antibiotics kill out all of the good bacteria in your intestinal tract and that can allow bad things to come in and make a home since there is room in the inn. Further blood testing determined that he had an infection of a bacterial nature shooting around his body in his veins and arteries. He was then moved to ICU for close monitoring. He began to improve after that. The next afternoon they deemed him well enough to move out of ICU into one of the wing floors for less intensive care.

I stayed the night on Tuesday since he begged me to and was feeling nervous and anxious after being moved out of ICU. I had eaten well that day and had even attended my normal karate class on Jim's insistence since he had improved so much. He was nervous and fearful, and still felt weak and shaky and wanted me around to help attend him during the night in case there were any problems.

I had hoped to get a some sleep. Little sleep is what I got. Every few minutes there was some monitor beeping, somebody coming in to take vitals or draw blood or somebody down the hall thumping and practicing their shotput for the Olympics. During the night I found myself running for the bathroom and vomiting and having diarrhea myself. I had a go at it about three times. By morning, after having no sleep at all, not even out of exhaustion, I wanted to get home and had to enlist the help of two friends to do it. I could not trust myself to drive home safely; without any rest, I was sure to have a wreck.

When I finally got home that afternoon, I crashed and slept almost all evening and all night, sipping only occasionally on some bottled water. I had found I needed to unplug my phones since everyone and God wanted to call me and kept waking me up once I would start to drowse off. I was awakened in the morning by a police officer banging loudly on our front door who said that my husband thought I was dead and was worried because he couldn't call me.

I seem to be able to keep down food now. Hooray! And Jim told me today over the phone that they hoped to have him in better shape to send home by this coming Monday March 7th. Hooray some more!

Jim was upset about all this. He felt the VA sent him home too early and he talked to the VA patient advocate about it, insisting that the VA should pay for his care at Heartland since he felt they had caused it by sending him home with an ongoing urinary tract infection and in a weakened state. Maybe they will, maybe they won't but he at least got better care at Heartland than at the VA. Though the VA ICU was good, the other floor was not since the nursing staff did not seem to know what was going on. Every nurse that came into his room on the second floor of the VA told him contradictory information about everything. He was told he would have a urology consult from the day he arrived at their ICU and then when they were kicking him out, he finally got to see the urology nurse, but no urology doctor. The only way he could have seen a urology doctor through the VA, despite having a urinary tract infection, was by making an appointment two to three weeks later.

If you ever have to deal with the VA, do NOT let them cut on you. I strongly suggest you not allow them to do any invasive procedures on you if you can possibly help it. If you can get any medical help and treatment through the private sector, DO IT! The VA will make you wait for an appointment and you could be dead by the time you can see someone.

Update:

Jim was let out of the hospital today. He is eating well and has been deemed infection free. Hoobah!

The treatment plan for his release was much better here with Heartland Hospital than with the VA. The VA said very little and we guessed he was supposed to take his meds and get plenty of sleep. At Heartland, his charge nurse Stephanie went over all his meds and was very patient and helpful with our questions about any changes. She also set up and told us about his followup care and what to expect.

Jim is nervous and fearful about being back home. After almost dying last time, he is praying that he does not have a repeat experience.

With various health issues in our house, I may get interrupted quite a bit so my apologies if I end up seeming to Zen out on anyone.