Turning corners

If you’ve been keeping up, you know that we spent the weekend at the hospital. We started in the Emergency Room and were eventually admitted to the hospital Saturday night. As of today (Monday), we seemed to have turned a corner and if things go as planned Becky will be discharged tomorrow. This is a little long (a bad habit of mine), but here’s what we’ve learned:

• Becky’s hemoglobin was low. We kinda knew that already, but since Becky was feeling so bad and the count was drifting lower, they decided to do a blood transfusion. In the process, we also learned that Becky’s blood type is O+. We’re waiting for follow up blood work to confirm that her counts are better.

• Becky’s white blood cell counts were high. We also kinda knew this, but since she wasn’t showing any signs of infection (before Friday), we hadn’t pursued anything. Well, not quite true. The liver doctor had prescribed an anti-biotic, but he hadn’t told us that he had or why so she hadn’t started taking them until Friday. An endoscopy on Sunday discovered a fungal infection in Becky’s esophagus. This doesn’t generally cause significant increases in white blood cell counts, so there have been a whole host of other tests to see if there is a second infection. Nothing else has been found so far, but they are going to do another test on her ascites fluid to verify there’s not one there and she’s been placed on another more wide ranging antibiotic just to cover all the bases.

• The first endoscopy verified her enlarged varies (swollen veins in her esophagus) but no sign of bleeding (a good thing). We’re currently on the books for a second endoscopy tomorrow to band those enlarged veins to reduce the possibility of future bleeding issues.

We appear to have also turned a corner with the insurance. The liver doctor finally made the call to the right number/department to get a case opened. We’re now waiting for assignment to a case manager so we can figure out the next steps on that path. We expect to be referred to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and Becky’s ready to make a trip tomorrow. I’m skeptical things will happen that fast, but I’m also anxious to get started as soon as we can.