What a Difference a Day Makes

Since my last update, we have had quite an adventure. MD Anderson was unable to schedule the core biopsy by Friday, so we left Houston Friday morning and came home. I must say that the phrase, "Home Sweet Home", never meant as much to me as it did Friday. We relaxed, washed clothes (at least I did) and went through a week's worth of mail. Al was still quite weak, but appeared to be glad to be home.

Saturday morning, he seemed even weaker. I grew concerned, but it didn't seem critical. After a round of cleaning, I sat on the couch and was getting ready to watch Longhorn football. I casually asked Al if he felt worse than the day before. He said, yes. I asked him to let me know if he took a turn for the worse. You will not believe what he said! He said, "I think I need to go to the hospital". WHAT?????

He then told me that he had been spitting up blood for the last 12 hours. An ambulance was called and off to the ER again. His preliminary blood work appeared normal, no fever or chills and no pain. A CTscan of his lungs was scheduled and the "thing" I had mentioned on the last update in his lung appeared to be the problem. It is an infarction of the left lung. The definition of an infarction is: an area of tissue death due to a local loss of oxygen. They were concerned that a blood clot had caused the infarct and was the reason he was spitting up blood.

They started Al on steroids, breathing treatments and antibiotics. It is now 24 hours later and he is a different person! He is smiling, laughing and as far as I'm concerned, back to normal...as good as normal is these days. His lack of energy has rebounded and the CTscan showed no blood clots. He does have pneumonia, but he is responding very well to treatment.

Now here's the point to this update. We were extremely disappointed that the core biopsy could not be scheduled on Friday and that we would have to wait until after Thanksgiving. But, if they had done the biopsy (under general anesthesia), it could have been extremely dangerous with the impending pneumonia. Once again, God is right on time.

Al in the ER:

24 hours later: