What a whirlwind life can be. We all have our ups and downs though, don’t we? And when you’re strapped in tight, it’s hard to feel anything but the nausea of your own ride.
We only spent 10 hours at the ER on Tuesday. We didn’t beat our personal best of 8 hours, but came close enough for some level of satisfaction. Being in the ER is exhausting. Beeping, crying, puking. The smells, the grime.
The waiting.
We left with no definitive answer to Nick’s problem. Could be the flu. Could be anything. Elevated white blood cell count (duh) and symptoms that could point to a myriad of illnesses.
I originally feared meningitis. That was the primary motivation for hopping out of bed at 3:30AM and driving 30 minutes in the dark to our beloved Riverside County Regional Medical Center (our own little slice of Cheers!). Although his neck was sore and a little bit stiff, it wasn’t “stiff enough” to point directly to meningitis. The doctor suggested doing a spinal tap on Nick to test his spinal fluid for the bacteria anyway though. She was very ambiguous about the test, leaving it completely up to us. We eventually declined the “uncomfortable” test when Nick began responding well to anti-nauseal medicines, fluids, pain meds, and IV antibiotics.
Yesterday he was still in a bad way all day, spending most of it in bed, faithfully taking Tylenol every few hours to control the fever and painful eyes.
Today is a completely different story though. No more fever and only a slight headache in the temple and eyes. He’s really foggy though. Mentally he isn’t quite right. He’s slow and visibly strained, having what he calls “flashes” of hallucination. His dizziness has subsided though, so we haven’t completely ruled out the possibility of therapy at Project Walk tomorrow.
I really hate living like this now. I know, everyone gets sick. The flu is “going around.” I get it. But what used to be a rare minor inconvenience is now cause for alarm for No Spleen Nick.
Nick Fener 