Airlift vs Ambulance.....

 For those of you who don't already know, Babygirl was hospitalized in the wee hours this morning.  She had some vomiting for a day and a half, with cold symptoms.  Covid testing was negative (important since Curlygirl is actually recovering from Covid).  

Yesterday I noticed that Babygirl was breathing heavily. She used her inhaler and said she felt okay. She actually ate dinner with us last night for the first time in a couple of days. But by bedtime the heavy breathing seemed worse, and I was concerned that she might tire during the night.  I set an alarm to check on her periodically. At 3:30 AM, the breathing was the same but she was clearly confused. She said she was looking for her socks, but then didn't notice the ones right in front of her.  I asked if she wanted her glasses, and she put her hands on her bare face and said she was already wearing them. She was uncoordinated, and I had some trouble getting her down the stairs and dressed.  I told Hubby I was headed to the ER with her.

We got there by 4 AM and were SWARMED by healthcare workers. They had her roomed, with EKG, chest x-ray, and blood work all done withing 15 minutes of our arrival  She was so sick that there was always a nurse, sometimes three, in the room at all times. 

The blood work came back and showed acute kidney failure, with numbers worse than they ever were prior to her transplant.  For the medical among you, her blood pH was 7.01.  Normal is 7.4.  Less than 7 is quite often fatal. She was breathing heavily to try to blow away the excess acid. 

By 7:30 we were ready to load into an ambulance.  I joked with the doctor, since this is our second ambulance ride to a distant hospital, that she'll have to try harder next time so we can take a helicopter. He said he wanted LifeFlight but they were grounded due to fog.  

Well.....DuckItAll. DuckItAll to hell.  (My autocorrect politely has been using "duck."  I'll go with that.)

Current status: Intubated on a ventilator, sedated, on dialysis with a feeding tube in place. 

All this for a cold with a stomach bug.  People wonder why we are so careful.  THIS is why. Transplant patients are never completely safe.

To answer some common questions:

1) We know WHAT is wrong with her but we don't know WHY.

2) We don't know if the kidney will survive.  It may recover, it may not.  Initially we weren't terribly certain that Babygirl herself would survive, but that seems to be...better.

3) No, she doesn't get automatically put back on a transplant list.  We don't know if she needs it, and there is a process for that. 

4) No, it is still not Covid. 

I've been here all day.  And I've just been informed that I have to leave by 8 PM and, due to Covid-related safety guidelines I'm only allowed to spend 4 hours with her tomorrow, all at one time, and no additional visitors.  I've never not been with her in the hospital. Never.

DeeDee  

PS: My sincere gratitude to the Emergency Room Team at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, the Emergency room teams at Strong Memorial Hospital, and the ICU doctors and nurses who have provided Babygirl's amazing care up her.

PPS: And a big DuckYou to Covid for making it impossible for me to stay with Babygirl.