mike's pneumonia chronicles #1

Many people are asking the same questions, so I am posting this to keep everyone in the loop.

Mike was completely healthy until Thursday 9/18 when he first complained that he felt a little bit fatigued. If you know him well, you know that he immediately took precautions to not get sick. He took vitamins, echinacea (which I can't spell), and Airborne. On Friday a.m. he felt better, he said he hoped he wasn't getting sick, and he went to school that day. After his Math class he even went to the Math Lab to work on homework or study for an upcoming chapter test which was scheduled for Monday 9/22.

After the Math lab, Mike drove home from school and apparently felt suddenly so bad and so fatigued that he parked in front of the house but couldn't muster the energy to come in for at least 10 minutes or so. When he did come in, he took his temperature with an ear thermometer and it was 103.6 degrees. The ear thermometer we have is not 100% reliable... it gives a different reading every time it is used so we regularly take a temperature with it about 5 times in a row and use the average as the temperature. So even though it said 103.6, I am not sure if the actual temperature was that. It may have been lower or higher.

Mike called me at work, and also called both my mom and my aunt who are both R.N.'s and I believe he got a hold of my aunt Jackie first. She was very concerned and told him to immediately get into the bath to cool-off, and to take Tylenol to bring down the fever. She also said that for a fever like that he should go right to urgent care after getting the fever down. She was concerned that with a high fever Mike could have a seizure... so she called my uncle Fred who works only about a block from our house and Fred came over to be with Mike. They discussed Fred taking Mike to urgent care, but decided not to since his fever was down.

When I got home from work about an hour after Mike, his fever was down to 99 and his energy was returning some. He seemed to still feel fatigued but felt better enough that he didn't want to go to urgent care. All indications were that he had a flu virus, and the treatment would be to take Tylenol, control the fever, and wait for his body to heal itself. Also, we were planning to have a 4th birthday party on the next day 9/20 for our son Joey... Mike did not want to miss that.

During the night from Friday 9/19 to Saturday 9/20, Mike felt so bad that he threw up in the bathroom several times. He stayed on the couch where he felt he wouldn't disturb my sleep as much, he could jump up and get to the bathroom quicker, and also because it keeps his head elevated (very good for him since he suffers from acid reflux). On Saturday a.m. he said he was just too sick to come to the party for Joey (which we were having in his parents' back yard). I was surprised he couldn't even rally the energy to come to the party even just to sit there. He did not have a high fever... it went from below normal to about 100 at various times.

Saturday night to Sunday was a repeat of the night prior... he vomited several times. On Sunday we decided he needed to go to the doctor for sure, but he preferred to wait for a same day appointment on Monday rather than going to urgent care. We were still very hopeful that this "FLU" would run its course and he would be better. He kept trying to stay away from me saying, "trust me, you don't want what I have." I insisted that he sleep in his own bed on Sunday, and even that night he had to get up and vomit.

On Monday the earliest appointment Mike could get was for 5:20 p.m. I took the children to preschool on Monday since Mike didn't feel well enough, then I worked, and after school I asked if my uncle Fred would come over to watch Joey and Julia while I took Mike into the doctor. Mike waited at home all day for that appointment... when I took him he could barely tolerate walking to the car. At Kaiser I got him a wheelchair and pushed him in. The appointment was very late... he REALLY was angry at the waiting time in the room outside before finally being called in.

Mike and I were there from about 5:00 to nearly 10p.m. that night. He was admitted with irregular blood tests, very fast heartbeat, and chest x-rays indicating pneumonia. We were surprised because the main symptom he reported for the appointment was that he was vomiting. This was (in retrospect) caused by a tickle in his throat or coughing, not stomach illness.

He was on a regular medical floor from Monday until Friday morning 9/26 when he was moved into ICU.

I will continue later. Now I am going to sleep.