On the Mend!

Klebsiella: the nasty bacteria that caused this whole mess

We're still hanging out at Enloe.  Will's fever finally broke early Friday morning.  They had been pumping him full of every IV antibiotic they had available in hopes that something would kill the infection that they couldn't locate.  He had a CT scan late Thursday night to look for an abscess or anything that could be causing the infection.  On Friday morning we got our answer.
The dr. that works on the cancer floor came in around 10 AM. 
"We've found an infection!" she said, her eyes breathing an air of excitement.  I imagine she was smiling behind the mask, but her eyes told us she was relieved that the 3 day search for an infection had reached an end.
"You have a bacteria called Klebsiella in your blood," she paused and looked at us as if we were going respond like we knew what she was talking about.
We stared blankly back at her.
"It is a bacteria that usually found in urine and stool," she continued "but we think it is in your lungs.  The CT scan from last night showed that you have patchy pneumonia all over your lungs."
She explained that pneumonia is usually centralized, but with the patches all over his lungs it makes them think that the bacteria is causing the problem.
"We will continue to test for other things to rule out any other infections, but now that we know what the main bacteria is, we can treat it!" She was enthusiastic and I liked it.
She has a picture of a baby hanging from her white lab coat.  The baby looks to be about 9 months old and smiles at us every time she comes in to check on Willie.  I haven't asked her yet if that is her baby, but judging by the overly optimistic way she delivers news, I can only assume there is a lot of baby talk going on at home.  I imagine her baby is incredibly smart and already knows what Klebsiella is. 
Willie asked about the plans for the day and she said that it was going to be pretty quiet now that they had an answer.  His job was to rest and keep getting IV's.
After she left, we decided that Will was doing good enough that I could go to the store for a while and take care of business. 
It was the last thing I wanted to do, but businesses don't run themselves!  My sister in law and our family friend have been so helpful this week and have stepped in to run the shop the last couple of days.  We are so blessed to have amazing people around to help us at the drop of a hat.  We had a record day of sales yesterday which is another amazing blessing.  It never ceases to amaze me how we have been blessed in the right way at the right time along this journey.
I stayed at the shop until 7PM then picked some things up from the house and headed back to the hospital.  I felt antsy as I drove back, as if couldn't get back fast enough.  This round in the hospital has been the most nerve wracking days of my life.  I thought it was bad when they diagnosed him, but I was wrong. 
It is most definitely scary to learn that your husband has Leukemia, but the fear disappears with the knowledge that its' treatable.  I have now discovered that it is terrifying to know that your husband who has leukemia also has an infection of unknown origin that could kill him.  Fear is created by the unknown and we have been hanging out in that gray area all week.
I raced into the hospital and was shocked to find the doors to the unit had been locked.  There was a security guard sitting in front of them and a giant sign proclaiming that visiting hours were over. 
"What do you need Ma'am?" the guard asked me.
"I need to get to my husband!" I practically screamed at him. 
He looked bored as he scanned me from head to toe.
"What's his room number?" he finally asked then typed information into the computer as I quickly gave it to him.
After what felt like 10 minutes he picked up a phone and called the nurses unit.
"I have a Missy Beavers here to see Willie Beavers" he said into the phone. 
"His wife," he said after a long pause. 
"She said she's his wife" he repeated again into the phone.
My heart was beating a mile a minute as my mind raced through the possibility that they may not let me through the door.  I thought that I could take a back door in that I had seen employees enter through earlier.  Or maybe I could snag one of the white lab coats I had seen in the laundry room next to the cafeteria entrance and work my way up to the fourth floor posing as a doctor.  I thought of a scene from the movie "The Fugitive" in which Harrison Ford plays as an inmate who has to escape from a hospital.  He ends up stealing clothes from an employee locker and walking out of the hospital.
'I could do that,' I thought to myself as I played the scene from the movie in my head.  There is nothing I wouldn't do at that moment to see my husband.
The security guard hung up the phone and began writing on a sticky note.
"He you go," he said, as he peeled a visitor badge from it's sticky backing and handed it to me.
"The nurse had your husband mixed up with a man that's not married," he explained, "but she figured it out."
"Have a good night," he said.  I didn't respond since I was halfway through the door by that point.  I ran up to his room and burst through the door.  Willie was laying in bed looking better than he had in days. 
"Hi baby!" he said, and smiled.
My shoulders nearly touched the floor as I sighed in relief and smiled back at him.
It was the best moment of my week.
He said the doctors had come by and reported that his blood counts were improving.  He hadn't had a fever all day and had taken a really long nap.  He was feeling much better.  We were both relieved.
That night we had the same nurse we had on Tuesday night when we were admitted.  She is a middle aged women with shiny bangs that sit perfectly poised on her forehead.  She is spunky and has a level of quirkiness that must be induced by a chronic lack of sleep since she has worked the night shift for years.  She gave Willie another round of IV antibiotics and said he would be needing more red blood cells when the IV was done.  He didn't start getting the blood until midnight and I was out of it by then and dozed on and off as he received the infusion.  That finished around 2AM and Will decided he wanted to lay on the cold water pad again. 
He hadn't had a fever for a day at that point, so we didn't really need to cooling machine anymore, but since it was there and his back was sore from laying in bed he thought he would take advantage of it and lay on the cold pad for the back pain. I must have looked like a zombie as I helped him arrange the cooling pad in his bed, then I collapsed onto the couch and fell back asleep.  A few moments later the nurse came back in.
"Willie has Influenza B" she announced. 
We were both drowsy and nodded back to her in response. 
"That is the common flu, but people who are immune compromised can get it really easy and it can be life threatening.  We just got a call from the lab that they found it in Willie's blood so we'll start him on medicine for that ASAP."
"Ok," Willie said with his eyes half closed.
She stood for a moment more as if waiting for a bigger response from us, then turned and left.
I was sound asleep when I was woken up by Willie shouting at 4AM.
"It's leaking!" he said "There's water everywhere!"
I shot off the couch and joined him on the side of his bed.  There was a giant puddle flowing from the cooling pad.  I got the nurse and it took us 8 towels to mop up the mess.  His bed was also soaked so we had to changed all the bedding. 
"Did you hear what I said about the Influenza B?" the nurse said to me as she helped me put new sheets on the bed.
I nodded.
"Oh good," she said "Because that was a good find on the labs part.  It's important we treat that."
I agree.  It's important that we treat anything and everything that is keeping us from going home.
We finally went back to sleep around 5AM and were both exhausted when the nurses woke us up again 2 hours later.
We've had a pretty quiet day today filled with antibiotic IV's and naps.  The doctor came in this afternoon and reported that Willie's counts are still rising and we may be able to go home tomorrow or Monday if he continues to improve.  They are still checking for another lung infections called PCP, but she feels like that he doesn't have that since he is doing so much better.
Willie's weight lifting team had a competition in Sacramento today.  The team had "Strength For Willie" shirts printed with the gym name on the back.  Will was honored that they would remember him at the competition and he wore his shirt today to support them.  We just learned that the team got first place!  Congratulations friends!  That is a good ending to our day.

Here's to more healing tonight and hopefully a return home tomorrow.
Happy weekend to all!