Judith Everhart

Excuse my writing skills, I'm going to ramble.  Mom has been sick on and off since spring and constantly in and out of doctors offices.  She was not able to do stairs without falling before and during our trip to Canada.  She saw her  neurologist in July and he put her on steroids two different times for a week at a time.  She then was able to do stairs, but found out she needed physical therapy,  not steroids.  She would've  started PT on Monday August 29th.   On August 28th she woke up saying she felt bronchitis coming on in the middle of the night so Dad took her to the minute clinic.  While on the table at cvs her blood pressure dropped (she describes it as floating away), blue lips, lights and sirens.  She was admitted with pnuemonia and even started feeling much better while still in the er.  She stayed one night and was discharged feeling good.  Thursday Sept. 1 she woke up at 4am and couldn't get any air and I called 911.  They took her and released her a few hours later.  She was tired, but felt good.  Sunday September 4 afternoon she said she didn't feel good and I wanted to call 911.  She said no so I called our neighbor Dr. C.  who advised me to call 911 and ran over to help.  Same low BP episode and not able to get air.  Dr. C was an angel helping to reassure mom and advising the paramedics.  She was released from the er the same day.  We were able to get a follow up with our PCP on Tuesday September 6.  He did a battery of tests, started her on a low dose of hydrocortisone to manage the episodes and wanted to see her Friday September 9.  That Friday as soon as we got in the office the nurse took her BP and it was low, but she felt fine. Within a minute her eyes started feeling funky.  She quickly lost focus and then couldn't see anything, couldn't get air.  I ran to get the nurse and the doc came and got her on oxygen, called 911 and away we went back to the er.  This time she was admitted for observation.  Her hospital doc reccomded an endocrinologist.  She visited her pulmonologist on Wednesday Sept. 14 and had clear lungs.  Thursday Sept. 15 we visited an endocrinologist that also reported Clear lungs.  He wanted to do a test that required being off the cortisone for 24 hours.  She planned to go off of it on Sunday and do the test on Monday.  She woke up Friday Morning September 16 saying she felt bronchitis and made an appt at our PCP with another doctor that would communicate with our doc.  Against my better judgement I didn't call 911.  The doc immediately did chest x rays and labs then sent her to the er for the fifth ambulance ride.  She was admitted with pnuemonia.  Her room was big enough for an aerobed so I crashed there.  Dad comes during the day.  On Monday we asked the Dr. K why she isn't getting chest x rays and he said we need to let the antibiotics run their course.  On Wednesday Dr. Chen was back on and immediately ordered a ct scan and lots of other tests.  He said her scan looked BAD and involved pulmonary.  Finally!  On Thursday morning at 11am September 22 they did a bronchoscopy and removed tissue from the top of both lungs and sent it to labs all over the country.  She got back at 1pm, ate lunch at 3pm I went home to get the mail, receive a meal for Dad and set her dvr.  I was checking in on her a lot and she was getting more breathing treatments than normal.  She wanted me to wait on dad's food so I did and right after she called to try to say "on call doctor, come now".  When I got there the nurse said she was having light labored breathing and was getting another treatment soon.  This was NOT light.  It was very scary and she was exhausted working so hard just to breathe.  We had such amazing nurses all week, but it was just shift change at 7pm and her new nurse was a dud.  I was in the hall speaking with her respiratory therapist when Dad ran out yelling she couldn't breathe.  We ran in along with other RN's and RT's.  The RT was working on her telling the RN to call Rapid Response NOW! Blue lips!  It took her yelling it at her FIVE TIMES!  So that's how we got to ICU.