The Lord took care of our dad!

 Update on our Dad...copied from our Mom!

Recently Dale and I were told by the medical staff just how sick Dale was when he arrived to Siteman on Oct. 30.

Meaning, in less than 6 hours he went from a 99.3 temp at home to 101.4 in 3 hours...and by the time we arrived at the hospital 2ish hours later, he was 102.9 with his heart rate in the 120s, lethargic and BP not good.

We were told later that he had been in

mid-level sepsis upon arrival and if he had gotten there even 2 hours later this conversation would have been quite different.

So I would like to Praise the Lord for protecting Dale!

Praise Jesus for giving the Medical Team the wisdom needed to get him up here immediately for prompt treatment.

Praise again for today's medications, knowledge and tests to help fight off this wicked infection!

Yes, it was a terrifying roller-coaster ride to get to today.

Dale was sicker than I have ever seen anyone. Past posts I made will tell you this.

Lab tests discovered this as being a Staph infection called MSSA. Not to be confused with MRSA...both are awful and both are known as a super, sticky-bug. However, MSSA is treatable with Penicillin. (Another shout out of thankfulness to Jesus for this being a treatable infection!!)

They took out Dale's central access line earlier in the week due to MSSA contamination. Infectious Disease has been wanting to get out his port as well for the same reasons

as the possibility of MSSA contamination is high on the port...however even after 4 units of Platelets in 6 hours yesterday, his counts were not high enough for the port to be taken out; the risk of Dale bleeding was too high.

That said, it was then decided the port will remain indefinitely and be the access point for the at-home Penicillin he will receive 24/7 for over 6 weeks.

Once he is done with the medication regimen, there is a risk that the Staph will come out of hiding off the port and rear up again. (It will be after antibiotic treatment of this current infection that they will plan to take the port out to help prevent this).

At-Home Healthcare will be coming out to show me how to use the pump and care for Dale with the administering of the Penicillin. This is a heavy responsibility for me. I do not want to be the reason he lands back into the hospital in the future.

Please pray for wisdom for me to learn how to care for Dale properly where this is concerned.

We get to come home today and begin yet another chapter in this long road to BMT recovery.

Dale's doctor told us, yet again, that the BMT was only the beginning. It takes 6-12 months of hurdles and hiccups before he feels like he did before the BMT...not before cancer.

This is crazy!

But we are realizing how true those words are.

One day at a time.

It's amazing how God designed our bodies to fight infections from little things like dust and bacteria. The immunocompromised person cannot fight off any of that. We want Dale's immunocompromised body to stay as safe as possible.

Praise the Lord for his Mercy and Grace and infinite love.

(and thank you for reading this post, if you made it this far)