Memorial Day - Pneumonia Setback

Nurse Cratchett here with the latest update. You will be able to tell the difference between our posts. Ed's journaling is professional, upbeat, positive, and humorous. My posts will show my frustration, anger, negativity, rage, and poor writing skills. I have no patience with the way the Health Care System operates, and I am sure they cringe when they see me coming at the Oncologists office. As I am raging about our 2 hour wait in the Doctor's office - Ed is calmly reading his book on the French and Indian War telling me to chill out! Lessons learned from a very humble, patient. Monday morning Ed woke up with a fever and a lot of congestion. The day was spent in Samaritan Hospital's ER with Ed on oxygen, and an IV drip of heavy duty antibiotics. His immune system finally crashed. He was diagnosed with Pneumonia, with a decent white blood cell count and xrays showing it was caught early.

The nurses and doctors were terrific at Samaritan - but the clientele was a different story. This included the retching teenager with alcohol poisoning, the beaten woman who claimed her boyfriend "got it worse", a crazy woman yelling at her husband on the cell phone, and the young couple who couldn't understand how their daughter got into the bottle of cold medicine. After the 6 hour ordeal - we were sent home with yet 3 more prescriptions. This is now Tuesday late afternoon when this goes to post - and we haven't gotten much sleep. Ed's fever is increasing, and he has to sit in a chair to breathe properly, with me on the couch monitoring him. I have never seen him this ill, and we may have to return to the ER at any moment to have his white blood cell count checked. Meanwhile I internally rage on, support Ed, and marvel at his wonderful positive attitude.