Made It, I Think

I had a bit of a set-back day before yesterday. After I posted, my blood pressure spiked up to 146/87 I think it was, and my temp rose up to 100.3 and stayed there. They said at 100.4 you need to go back to the hospital. Well, this felt like one of those "spirit vs letter of the law" things. Obviously at 100.3 I have a fever. Obviously something is still infected/wrong. But I cannot begin to tell you how much I did not want to go back into the ER. I don't even have anywhere else for them to put a vein unless they go hunting in my leg, or neck. My arms, wrists, hands, all spots are done. (Sorry Mom). Another mid or central or PICC line somewhere I guess. But anyway. I really, really, REALLY don't want to go back in. However, I'm also aware that infections are nothing to mess with, that if I got behind it it could kill me, and "Died because of  Tooth" seems like such a lame epitaph. How about "I told you my tooth hurt". No. So I knew, I could tell, that my default was going to be to hide, slide, ignore, but my logic side didn't want to be stupid. So we called a family meeting. Kaylee came over, and we sat and talked, and came up with a protocol. We decided that because I didn't feel altered or anything, if my temp went up to 100.4, we'd give it at least 30 min and test it again to make sure it wasn't just a rogue or temporary reading. If it stayed at 100.4 we'd get all ready to go, test it again in another 30. If it was still there or higher, I go into the hospital. If it comes back down, I wait. At this point I had no hope. My temp had gone from 99.6 or so on discharge to 100.3 and held there half the day. Temps usually go up in the evenings. What are my odds of it not going to 100.4 or worse and staying there?

I don't know what time it was, but I did a check, and it was 100.6. Here we go. I got up, took a shower slowly, finished packing my bag, sat back down and rested, and figured this was it. Per our protocol, I tested it again in 30 min and it was down to 100.4. Still at the Line of Demarcation, but it had come down. I waited another 30, tested it again, and it was below 100.4. I actually got a little upset. Steve and Kaylee were off doing something else next door for a minute and I looked out the window and I had a little angry 'talk' at God. I said I was tired, and this back and forth and back and forth...could it PLEASE either just start trending better, or stay worse, so I at least KNOW what is coming and what I'm supposed to do, and I know you don't usually interfere much, but if you want to just go ahead and help me out here a little bit, that would be GREAT, if you don't MIND, PLEASE, could you just....

About an hour later, temp is still hovering over 100, and I tell Steve to go to bed and get some sleep, I'm going to sleep on the chair in the living room propped up to help with my lungs and breathing. I held no illusions, how is there any way I'm not going to end up in the hospital? If the IV antibiotics couldn't kick it, and the oral antibiotics gave me a slowly increasing temp over 48 hours, then how was it suddenly going to just get better on its own? I prepared that I was going into the ER. I got my medical records ready to go, had my shower taken, restocked my overnight kit with important amenities like deodorant, and I figured it was "when" not "if", now, and I was really sad about that.  

I was actually pretty comfy in the living room lazy boy. Went to sleep sometime after 1 am. Woke up at 4 am and my blood pressure was completely normal (like 115/60), and my temp was down to 99.7. Went back to sleep and slept hard. I was woken up at 7 am by Steve rubbing my arm. This is a little dark but I am a little dark so I only slightly apologize for finding this funny. He had checked on me a couple times in the night and he said I was so silent and unmoving that it creeped him out, and he couldn't sleep any more because he kept picturing me just dead out there, so he came out to rub my arm and make sure I was still alive. I was, I was just sleeping really hard. He said if he'd come out and my mouth was hanging open he'd have flipped the hell out (that's how we found both his parents). So fortunately I sleep with my mouth closed. Anyway, after he woke me up, I tested everything, and my BP was still normal, and now my temp was normal too. 98.6. The corner was turned, perhaps.

Steve had gotten some antibiotics called in by our dentist. He said to just take one instead of two yesterday, and he would fix my tooth today. Now that my temp was finally normal, I wasn't sure I needed the one, but one extra antibiotic pill isn't going to hurt me, so I just followed the original plan. 

All day I tested my vitals. Heart rate good, Oxygen good, blood pressure good, temp...good. The highest it got was 99.0, otherwise it hovered around 98.5-98.8 all day. I got about halfway through the day like that, and then it occurred to me, and I looked back out the window (why? I guess the sky always makes me feel closer) and said "Thank you!"

I have taken it easy. I ate easily (I eat Greek Yogurt each day to combat all the antibiotics), I had bone broth chicken soup for gut health, I had coffee and water and water and water, and at the end of the day I was less careful and ate a half of a small personal pizza split with Steve, and it went down well. 

Today I get my tooth fixed, so I'll come back and edit that afterwards and with anything interesting.

I'm thankful that the corner was turned, and that I just didn't hop over to the ER right when it hit 100.4. The protocol worked well to provide safety but also a little common sense pause. Now I need to find a lab to draw some blood for updated numbers testing per the hospital's orders, and I need to heal up. I am watching my airplanes fly around the country without me. I am also watching huge amounts of income go flying by without me. The Conquest got back last night from CO and is heading to Illinois and St Louis today. I don't like that. They've flown 55 hours since I went down with more to come, and the next thing I have, if I'm recovered enough, is to go out to CO on the 23rd via airline and bring home the Conquest on the 24th. That's another ten days away. I've lost the month of April on income, and it would have been a banger. *sigh* However, at least I did not die, so there is that. ;)

Will let you know how the tooth thing goes. Appreciate the love and support and care and information.

**So, update. Dentist looked at the tooth and says I need a root canal, which he doesn't do there, he sends people to a specialty place in town. He fixed one thing on the left side but didn't touch the tooth that is the problem. He said I should take a day of antibiotics here then stop and save the rest and if I feel "pressure" or pain on it again to start taking them again. Because the next time they can get me in to do the root canal is April 30th. So TWO WEEKS of this. I almost cried at the front desk while they were on the phone making the appointment. She asked them to please pencil me in if anybody canceled that I need to do the first available. They told me to call the place back in a day or two and try to ask to be bumped up. Dentist office lady tried to tell them how critical this was for me to get in there, but for now I'm set for 2 weeks from now. I'll call maybe as soon as tomorrow and try to get in sooner.  I am...sad, frustrated, weary. I just need this to be done.