How It All Began Pt. 1

So many of you have asked, " How did this all begin?"  I hope through this blog to answer that question.
August 5th, 2011, Tim was admitted to Baptist downtown for a high fever and undetermined illness. The doctor in the ER began running CT scans and blood work and started him on antibiotics based on what he suspected was sepsis.(although he did not share this suspicion with us)Tim had started running a fever on the 2nd but we really didn't think it was anything more than a virus because Hannah and I had been sick a few days before with similar symptoms. By the 4th, it was obvious that he was getting worse and he planned to call the doctor's office first thing on Friday. But by Friday morning, his fever shot up and he was mentally disoriented and very weak.

Saturday morning the results for the blood cultures came back positive for sepsis caused by MRSA/ORSA. It's hard to put into words the emotions we experienced when we heard "sepsis". We looked at each other with tears in our eyes with the realization how critical  the situation was. Before we had time to catch our breath, one doctor after another came in to talk with us and gather as much info as they could about where had he been, what had he been doing the day before starting with the fever, etc. The infectious disease doctor  asked about any recent dental work and it dawned on us that he had just had a crown seated the day before he started with the fever. It seemed that we may finally be narrowing down where this started. The doctors seemed encouraged that his heart still sounded clear. Their speculation was that when the crown was seated strep was introduce into his blood stream which caused pericarditis and the pericarditis allowed the MRSA to infiltrate the bloodstream.  Due to the diagnosis of MRSA Tim was moved to a private room. During this time, I tried to keep everyone as updated as I could so everyone could pray specifically.(Words cannot express our gratitude for the prayers and messages. We felt those prayers and felt so carried and uplifted.)Tim started complaining about double vision by Saturday afternoon.That night I was able to stay in the room with Tim. It was a very long night as the alarms on the monitors were going off every few minutes due to his condition worsening. When the doctors came in to see him on Sunday, they determined he had developed endocarditis and were moving him to ICU. Tim was coherent enough to ask Dr. Kapoor if he was going to make it and Dr. Kapoor looked at each of us and said, "I don't know." Once Tim was settled in ICU, the nurses looked at me and said, "Mrs. Sharron, he is being well taken care of. You need to go home and rest." As I left the hospital and drove home, I cried. The realization that he may not come home from the hospital hit me so hard. I felt a mix of emotions from feeling very alone to grief to a peace and calm that comes only from being carried by the Spirit. When I got home, I checked facebook and was blown away by the messages. People all over this country were praying for Tim..... for us. God is good no matter what happened. Not just if Tim made it but also if God chose NOT to  heal him. I called and checked on Tim during the night, his nurse assured me he was resting and was stable. The first 24 hrs of him being on the antibiotic it was getting into the body but the next 24 to 72 hrs would be critical because his body could reject the antibiotic. Vancomycin is one of only a couple of drugs that can treat MRSA/ORSA and it was wait and see if his body would respond.
(We've learned in  recent days that he was so critical that they could not sedate him for the TEE because they would have lost him).
By Monday morning, his condition began to turn around.  The kids and I spent the morning trying to be tested for MRSA(per the nurse we needed to do so before coming back to the hospital). That turned into a fiasco and we finally got back to the hospital Monday afternoon.  Tim had a stream of visitors all morning and continuing into the afternoon and evening. Thank you is so inadequate to express our gratitude for the outpouring of love and prayers. Even now it blows me away when I think about it!  Shortly after we arrived at the hospital, Dr. Kapoor came in and gave us the news that the MRSA had not colonized in his heart and his body was responding to the antibiotics. He assured us that Tim would be going home at some future point.
By the middle of the week, Tim was moved to the step down ICU. At this point he still wasn't able to eat, had vertical double vision and had lost all hearing in his right ear.  As physical therapy evaluated him late in the week, it was decided that he would need at home vestibular therapy. It also meant that he would receive a picc line because he would require 6 weeks of Vancomycin twice a day. ( Never knew I would get to learn how to administer iv antibiotics at home but I did). It was another week before Tim would be discharged(just in time for our 28th anniversary). He was so very weak and required a walker to get around.  Everything he touched had to be sanitized. But he was home and able to sleep in his bed and considering what we had faced two weeks before we were so grateful.  To be continued.............