Sunday morning Dick's temperature was so low I thought our thermometer was broken so I hauled out the old fashioned mercury one. Still 95.8 so I phoned the urology dept. at University Medical Center. The resident on call is the one most familiar with Dick's history so she said take him to the ER and I will call the attending and we will probably admit him.
So after blood work, blood cultures and CT scans and then an chest x-ray they admitted him. We got there at 11 a.m and he was in his hospital room by 8:45 in the evening. They thought they might do a procedure to find out what the mass was behind his kidney but postponed it. Today we thought they might do the procedure but it is postponed again so he has had two days of "nothing by mouth" waiting for several hours.
He is still running fevers. His hemoglobin was down to 8 so he got 2 units of blood today. And the hospital staff got to see the mental confusion he gets when he runs a fever of over 99. He has had vancomycin yesterday and today and the Dr. said she will order a PICC line in case he needs IV antibiotics at home.
So I have spent yesterday and today at the hospital. The mass could be pooled urine from a leak when they put in the nephrostomy tubes, a blood clot, an abscess or a mets tumor. They don't think he could stand up to having it surgically removed so they are asking interventional radiology to aspirate whatever it is so they can find out. If it is an abscess it could be harboring the MRSA that won't give up.
Back early in the morning for another long day at the hospital.
