Christmas in the Club: Day 4

I’m going home!!! I just signed my walking papers aka discharge paperwork. I’m doing a dose of cefapime right now since it was due. It only takes 30 minutes. At home it is just an IV push which means I push it over 20 minutes (it comes in a big syringe). The hubs is heading here to pick me up. He’ll swing through and I’ll go down, get in and be on my way!

I didn’t know if I would be able to go home today because one of the doctors I saw said they usually want another set of lung functions after 7 days. I had them last on Sunday morning so I kinda bargained with him to do them Friday morning. He contacted my CF doctor (who’s on vacation) and my CF doctor said he was fine with me going home early! Well isn’t he the best! I might just have to get him a gift to say thanks. I am able to use my home spirometer if they want updated numbers. I have an appointment for labs on Tuesday morning. I usually get labs once a week when I’m on IVs unless I’m on colistin or other antibiotics that are hard on my kidneys. If I’m on any of those antibiotics then I get labs twice a week.

They are delivering my IVs to my house so I don’t have to wait at the hospital for them. I’m set to be done with home IVs on Saturday the 7th which will be a total of 14 days of IVs. We can always reevaluate then if I feel like I need another week. I’m hoping I’m good to go on Saturday though. I’ve been known to need 3 weeks of IVs, so I’m hoping not this time. I am also doing oral prednisone tapering from 40mg for 3 days to 20mg for 3 days then done.

I’m not going home on oxygen thankfully. My oxygen sats haven’t been dropping as low when I don’t have it on while going to the bathroom or getting cleaned up. I will be taking it easy when I get home because recovering from the parainfluenza, slight pneumonia (really only means an infection was able to be seen on the CT) and a CF exacerbation will take some time. I don’t have anything planned for the next week except for labs on Tuesday so all is good. I’ll update if/when there is anything to update.

Until next time…

The Last 6 Days…

This is what the last 6 days have looked like to me…

Thursday, August 3rd:  My nurse called and said my kidney level (creatinine) was up today when I had my bi-weekly labs drawn. So I’m at the ER getting checked in then getting admitted. The plan is to get me hooked up to fluid to help flush out my kidneys. It’s not as high as it was the last time I was admitted for acute kidney failure which is good that we caught it. The reason my kidney level is high is from the antibiotics that are filtered through my kidneys. Sometimes the kidneys take a hit. I’ll keep you all updated. Continue reading

Hospital follow up today

Today was a decent day.  I had my follow up from my hospital stay today.  We did the usual clinic stuff.  My weight is up a few pounds since my last visit.  I’m sure it is all the good food and lots of snacks that we have been blessed with over the last week.  I’m not complaining because I need the calories and fat.  The thing is, all of my gummy bears and Snickers bites have already disappeared.  That may or may not have something to do with those few extra pounds. 🙂 My lung functions are holding steady at FEV1 of 1.39 / 47%.  They aren’t great but they are steady so I’ll take it.  They were all very concerned with how my kidneys decided to take a nose dive, or well a spike I guess out of nowhere.  I gave them a scare and they were all racking their brains for causes and solutions.   Continue reading

Home sweet home!

I got paroled today!  My creatinine was 1.82 this morning!!  After receiving the great news that my creatinine was down my sister walked into my hospital room.  Mind you, she lives in Kansas City and I’m in Knoxville, TN…11 hours apart!  I was speechless and that doesn’t happen often.  I was so surprised.  That made my day even better.  My doc came in and asked if I was ready to go home and of course I said yes.  I wasn’t going to argue with him.  Although I was ok with staying if it meant a sister sleep over in the hospital.  We haven’t done that in years.  I got my walking papers and was home by noon.  Continue reading

Stubborn kidneys

Another day in the books…  I am still nauseous and my eyes feel like they can’t focus at times.  I have pretty much no appetite and nothing sounds good at all but I keep snacking to keep my calories somewhat up.  My calorie intake is defiantly not where it needs to be but some is better than none.  My creatinine has been on a roller coaster.  So here are the numbers.  Monday it was 5.3, yesterday in the ER before fluids it was 5.99, last night after a bag of fluid and half a bag of fluid with sodium bicarb it was 5.6 and this morning it was 5.8.  As I said before the normal range is .5 – 1.1. Continue reading