Day 3

OK, so you didn't miss days 1 and 2, we've just been a little busy.  We'll actually start with Day 0:  Tom had been complaining of having the flu for a couple of weeks.  Self-medication didn't seem to be working so after some "gentle coaxing" from me (his wife) he made a doctors appointment.  He continued to get weaker and weaker and by Tuesday March 22 (the day of his doctors appointment) he was too weak to make it to the doctor even with my help but he didn't want me to call for help.  I let him talk me out of calling for an ambulance until early Thursday morning.  He arrived at Baptist ER via ambulance around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 24.

Day 1
Baptist Hospital Emergency Room, Nashville TN
Once under the very bright lights, it was obvious Tom was extremely ill.  He had not had any food or drink so he was dehydrated and very yellow.  Their initial report was kidney and liver failure, but could not determine a source.  I was told the situation was "dire".  After a "come-apart" and a phone call to my mom, I called his sisters and they headed to Nashville from Carrollton, GA.  The doctors immediately admitted him to the hospital and we waited for a Critical Care Unit (CCU) bed to become available.  By God's grace, we were assigned a bed within a couple of hours.

Once in CCU, the specialized care givers confirmed the "dire" status and connected lots of tubes.  Tom was responsive to questions, his heart, lungs, and some other things looked good so that was positive news.  I went to the CCU waiting room to wait and was relieved to have two friends arrive.  His primary care physician (PCP) came in about an hour later.  After some conversation his comments to me were:  Tom is very, very sick.  You need to prepare yourself that he might not recover.  My assumption in all of the reports thus far was that Tom's liver had failed and that was the primary issue.  I started calling family, friends, co-workers, Sunday School members, everyone . . . to pray!  I always thought if I was in this situation I would want to be alone without anyone around "bugging" me.  Not the case now!  I couldn't imagine not having everyone here, helping me, praying for us.  I decided right away not to say "no" to anyone who offered to help and put some folks to work (I wondered later if they knew I wouldn't accept help and wished they hadn't offered).  They came through and provided food, blankets, house-sitting, etc.

Throughout the day the message did not change.  Every specialist that his PCP brought in said the same thing . . . he is very ill; the message to family and friends is he is critical.  Our team of doctors currently includes his PCP, a critical care doctor and his resident, a kidney doctor, a surgeon, and an infection control doctor.  What a blessing when Tom's sisters and brother-in-law arrived.  We cried together for a time, visited with Tom and settled in for a long night, sans sleep.

Day 2
The morning of day two brought more information.  Tom's sisters went to visit him and were able to speak with his nurse.  The nurse said the tests revealed that a wound on Tom's abdomen was actually a hernia that had ruptured and he was suffering not from liver and kidney failure alone, but severe septic shock resulting in multi-organ failure (kidney and liver).  Although not good news, we at least had a diagnosis with treatment possibilities.  He was started on powerful antibiotics.  They could not confirm the hernia to be the source of the infection so continue to run more tests.  Tom was not as responsive as he had been.  We waited some more and prepared for another night in a brightly lit waiting room.  Thanks to my brother-in-law, we were equipped with sleeping masks and dubbed ourselves the "divas of the CCU waiting room".