He's back . . .

in the hospital!

Yes, it's true.  Hopefully just a minor setback but a setback nonetheless.  Tom had a follow-up appointment with his primary care physician yesterday.  He complained of some discomfort in his abdomen.  The doctor ran some blood tests.

This morning the doctor called us back to the office to review the test results (not usually a good sign).  I left work, picked up Tom and we headed to his doctor.  Tom's white blood cell count was pretty high - a sign of infection.  Even though the red blood cell count was better and he had no fever, the doctor suspected some type of infection.  His recommendation was to re-admit Tom to the hospital.  Tom was sent directly to the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU).  This is just around the corner from where we were last time - with a whole new set of nurses.

Tom had a CT scan and ultrasound of his abdomen this afternoon.  They found there to be quite a bit of fluid and drained about 700 ccs.  They will run a culture on the fluid to see if they can determine the source of the infection.  The did see the hernia too so it's still there.  They ran some blood cultures and then started IV fluids and IV antibiotics.  They are also giving Tom a Thyroid medicine because his TSA was high on the test results from yesterday (this Thyroid condition could also be why Tom is weak and tired); and he's getting a drug that they use to treat pancreatitis - just in case.  They will use the original blood cultures and compare them to what they pull this evening and tomorrow to see which direction to go with further treatment.

So, in the meantime, Tom is on complete bed rest and can't have anything to eat or drink at least until after his evaluation in the morning.

Tom will be seeing the same critical care doctor we had before.  Hopefully we can get a good plan in place before all the regular docs take off for the beautiful 3-day holiday weekend we will be having here in Nashville.

I'll not be staying in the lovely ICU waiting room this time.  I'm hanging with the crazy puppies!  I left Tom in the care of a very good RN.

Although I don't want to make a big deal of this situation at this point, this is the best format for letting our family and friends know what is going on.  So, I do ask that you will lift Tom up in prayer again.  I will continue to post as I receive additional information.