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They did another EKG, looked at all his lab work, did a complete exam, changed his meds up entirely, and scheduled him for a sleep study - they think he has sleep apnea. They also scheduled an echocardiogram. They told him to take off work for this rotation and rest and continue antibiotics to get past this upper respiratory thing, which is complicating everything. I mean, he's so sick from that that it's hard to tell why he has a headache, why he's coughing more when he lays down, etc. Plus he had pneumonia once before and his BP shot up really high due to the stress of struggling to breathe.
They also told us to take his BP twice a day and if it doesn't go down significantly within 24-48 hours to call to come back in.
My husband came straight home and went straight to bed. I feel so badly for him!
The good news is that all the troubling things - slightly enlarged heart, slight swelling in legs, slightly weird blood work - everything came back only very slightly off. The doctor said that whatever is going on, we've apparently caught it early and that it should be "fixable."
So we'll see. One good thing is that he won't go back to work for another month, which should give him plenty of time to get over the infection, get adjusted to his meds, get the tests done, etc.
Glad they think whatever this may be that it has been caught early. An enlarged heart can lead to CHF, so still seems like that's on the table.
That said, a lot of progress has been made with CHF and it can be well controlled with medicines and good monitoring.
Whatever it is, I hope his doctors are able to figure it out and get him on some therpies that will give him significant assistance.
....Kathryn, (and others) I would not do something like very often, but sometimes it works very well to shock husbands and doctors into seeing how silly it would be for the very, very ill patient to leave the hospital with his lay-person, untrained wife. If the wife physically leaves the building what are they going to do? Send the very sick husband home in a taxi? Let the husband hitch hike home? Have him sleep on a chair in the waiting room?
I did this once in the 1980's at Roosevelt Hospital in NYC. I picked up someone, who I thought was still in lousy shape. By the time I got him home he was unable to stand, etc.
I called someone else and we almost literally dragged him into a cab, and back to the hospital ER. They were VERY annoyed. We refused to take responsibility for him. They called in the weekend director of the ER or the hospital, I forgot which. She was insistent that he was able to leave and that we should take him out of the ER.
We said that we were leaving and we we going to sit outside, and as soon as they ejected this guy and he fell on the ground we were going to call the New York Times.
They were furious, but we walked out and sat on the steps. They kept him.
And they kept him for four damned weeks he was so sick!
Sometimes you just have to escalate to a major face-off, unfortunately.
If you haven't already done this, Kathryn, you might find that elevating his upper body in bed will help with his breathing. You can use a "wedge" pillow for this. Sleeping in a recliner is another option. An elevation of about 45 degrees for upper body (waist up) seems about right.
Kathryn...I'm glad they found his condition to be "fixable" -- let's hope the BP gets under control soon! Poor fella....I know you are a huge comfort to him.
I haven't yet read all of the responses, but want to say two things:
1. If he is self-employed, does he have any sort of shower-term disability set up for himself that he can use? I knew a woman who had her own salon, and she had an insurance policy (not AFLAC, but similar, I suppose) that would pay her for days off while sick, hospital stays, etc. Hopefully, he has something like that in place.
2. Don't go along with whatever any one doctor says. I cringed each time I read in your post that his BP was high, but they sent him home. I am currently experiencing a nonchalant attitude with a health care system. I am a HUGE fan of getting serious medical issues taken care of at a research hospital - and getting a second opinion.
I wish you the very best. You and your family will be in my thoughts.
If you haven't already done this, Kathryn, you might find that elevating his upper body in bed will help with his breathing. You can use a "wedge" pillow for this. Sleeping in a recliner is another option. An elevation of about 45 degrees for upper body (waist up) seems about right.
Yes - this.
If there is a chance he has sleep apnea, he should be sleeping on a wedge until he gets tested and treated. The wedge sleeping will decrease collapsing of his airway while he sleeps. Also, sleeping on the side is often a bit better for sleep apnea, but that is less important than sleeping propped up.
Ok, hopefully we can get a grip on this but I am afraid I see the writing on the wall.
My husband's BP has always run a bit high, even since he was a young man. We've been married ten years and in his forties it usually ran about 140/90. He had no symptoms, felt great. Unfortunately he did smoke about half a pack a day (sometimes less - a pack would often last three days). About a year ago he stopped smoking.
About two years ago he got pneumonia and his blood pressure spiked to around 200/100. The docs immediately put him on some meds, and told him to take his BP every day. He did stop smoking, started taking the meds religiously, but refused to take his BP very often. When he did take it, it was usually pretty high but he'd say "I took it BECAUSE I knew it was high." I suspected that it was basically continuing to run high (about 180/95). But he refused to take his BP every day.
They also ran some additional tests and those tests didn't show any blockages or significant issues. This was about two years ago.
When he would occasionally go to the doctor (he's rarely sick so these were rare occasions), his BP would be around 177/95 or so. His doctor told him to take an extra dose of BP medicine if it got high like that. She assumed he was actually taking his BP every day but I've got news for her - he wasn't doing it. I knew he wasn't doing it. But since he had no symptoms of other issues and since his other tests were good, we just rocked along.
About two weeks ago he got an upper respiratory infection. But he has also been feeling "run down" and he admitted to me that he's been feeling short of breath for "awhile now." And I had noticed that his feet were swelling - one more than the other in fact - and he had just said, "I need new work boots."
Anyway, I thank God for the upper respiratory infection because that forced him to go back to the doctor last Friday - and his BP was 213/105. THAT got everyone's attention. They almost admitted him but managed to get his BP "down" to 177/95. (I personally would be having a stroke at that level.) Long story short (this story is on another thread anyway), we made a trip to the ER Sunday when it went back up - more EKGs, more bloodwork, got it "down" again, sent him home with instructions to go to his regular doc immediately. We went in Monday (yesterday) and all hell just about broke loose. I thought they were going to admit him but instead we got an appt this morning with a specialist, so he will be going in for a battery of tests this morning. Meanwhile his BP is at least 200/100 every time we take it, in spite of the slew of meds that he's been given and continues to take.
I can't believe I'm saying this but I wish they'd admit him to the hospital today. Besides the BP issues, he is still struggling with the upper respiratory issue, so he is completely miserable. And I can just imagine what these coughing jags do to his blood pressure. I'm scared to death that he's going to collapse at home.
It's been a week since I even saw my mother, who as the regulars know, is recovering from a broken hip and has some dementia. Till this hit I was helping my dad deal with taking care of my mom, which was a new experience for him.
I have a feeling this is going to be quite an ordeal for all involved. I feel so badly for my husband. He's only 58. He is a great guy - funny, upbeat, a terrific husband and dad, witty and intelligent... and he's not used to being a patient and not very good at it. He's definitely a Type A personality and the Alpha male in any room or setting. Barrel chested and muscular and assertive and blustery - I've always said privately that I was afraid he was a "walking heart attack," and apparently I'm right about that.
Obviously he can't return to work for the next rotation (next week). He's an oil and gas consultant, self employed, and has felt very lucky to be able to hold on to his job. So that's adding to the stress - he's afraid they'll just replace him rather than hold the job for him. But I can't even think about that right now.
Whoa, you have a lot of problems. First your infirm mother driving you nuts, then your husband's blood pressure, and also the real estate quandary. Hell on earth. I hope your children don't come down with something too.
Kathryn,
I am so glad you got some good news with your husband. It's a real wake up call. Is there any chance that during his month off you could go on your little getaway that you talked about earlier? Probably be good for both of you.
He's feeling better now that the antibiotics are kicking in.
He's already sleeping propped up - we have a bed where you can raise the head or feet and he's been sleeping with the head raised.
No short term disability - our health insurance premiums are so high that would have been absolutely unaffordable. We're already paying $1000 a month as well as $4500 each deductible - and basically our insurance pays nothing till we reach the $4500. Grrrrr.
He's been seen by four different doctors at two different facilities over the past week, and all the labs and tests say about the same thing and all the doctors seem pretty much on the same sheet of music, so we'll see what the echocardiagram and sleep tests show - and I like that they changed up his meds so hopefully these new ones will be more effective.
We'll see how the next few days goes!
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