All About Poppa

You may be wondering why it is so long since I posted.............well, here it is..........rather than type it all over again, I am copying from an e-mail I sent to Aunt Muffy..........
"Daddy is being kept in the hospital over the weekend.  Last Sunday he woke up with a rather severe headache..........so he took some Advil and carried on.  On Monday he still had it - a little worse....so he took some Aleve and carried on.  On Tuesday it was even worse...so he took some of each and carried on.........didn't do much except sit around and doze off and on.  Wednesday morning he was on his knees holding his head.............and I declared him sick and took him to emergency.  They gave him some Tylenol #3, said it was most likely a virus...if he didn't feel better by Friday come back in.  On Thursday (yesterday) morning, he was worse, and the Tylenol was not touching the headache.  So............we went back.  This time they took blood, and checked for neurological symptoms..............finding nothing, they prescribed an anti-nausea medicine (by then the pain was so severe he was feeling yucky), and some pain-killer (I have forgotten the name).  By supper time he was feeling much better and had supper and took a pain killer pill.  By bedtime, he was complaining of headache again.  He took another pill and we went to bed.  He woke up about 5am in a lot of pain again.  I got him another pill and we went back to bed.  When I came downstairs he was already down and kneeling holding his head again.  So..........we went back to the hospital.  This time they checked more extensively, took more blood and sent him for a brain scan...........which came back fine.  So........they gave him a lumbar puncture........and we waited for the results.  The spinal fluid contained a low level of white blood cells.  Bottom line...........he has an infection in his spinal fluid..........they aren't sure whether it is viral or bacterial.........so they are currently treating him for both.  When the cultures come back tomorrow they will know, but in the meantime they want to be safe.  They are leaning toward a virus similar to West Nile, but NOT West Nile, as in not so severe or scare-y.  At any rate, they are keeping him there until Monday to keep an eye on him and make sure he gets better and not worse.  He was already feeling quite a bit better when I left (about 6 - I can't drive in the dark)........still not himself, but better.  I will keep you up-dated."


When I left he was resting comfortably and getting sleepy again.  He had three IV's dripping....one anti-biotic, one anti-viral and a saline.  I think maybe he was happy to see me leave, since we had spent the whole day in that one small room, and he had listened to my chatter long enough!  But I know he was feeling better, because the last thing we discussed was whether I would stop and get him his two lottery tickets for Wednesday night!  I can tell you quite truthfully - lottery tickets were the last thing on my mind!  Oh well!