The Last Day Of January 2012

Here it is the last day of January 2012.  What a month and there is still a few hours left so I'm warily optimistic at this time that we will end this month on a high note.

During this month, we have made three trips to the emergency room.  1.  For his unusual behavior; 2.  For his constant drop in his blood pressure; and 3.  finding out he has pneumonia.

How did No. 3 sneak in on me?  This is Tuesday.  Sunday night while sleeping with Joe, I noticed some wheezing in his throat, but didn't get excited about it.  I notice that I wheeze every once in a while, but nothing comes of it. 

Monday he went to the Senior Center, did his normal routine, I picked him up and took him to physical therapy.  Both Jeff and I noticed how worn out he appeared to be.  Jeff even told him he couldn't spend all day at the Center doing exercises and then come to therapy and expect to have a great workout.  We went home, I fixed dinner and Joe almost immediately went to bed - this was around 7:00.  He was so tired.  I went to bed around 9:30 p.m. as I could no longer stay awake.  We'd both had a bad night of interrupted sleep Sunday evening and I wanted to catch up on some lost sleep.

Around 12:15 a.m. I heard Joe calling "help, help, help, help" and I went into the bedroom where I found him with a glazed look on his face, he was "lost" sitting on the bed, flushed in his face and gurgling very loudly.  He wanted to get to the bathroom, but had no strength and couldn't walk on his own.  I helped him to the bathroom where I took his temperature and it showed 100 degrees - no more since he couldn't keep him mouth closed to breath.  I decided it was time for another trip to the emergency room and quickly.

I had to get both of us dressed and somehow managed to get Joe out the door and into the car.  When we were halfway to the hospital, he announced he was going to throw up and he did before I could stop the car and open up the door.  Thank goodness it was only on himself.  When we arrived at the ER, he was taken back immediately and the tests began. 

It was determined that he has pneumonia and most likely he also aspirated in his left lung when he threw up. He was finally admitted to the hospital after about 5 hours in the ER.