Infection? Maybe...maybe not!

Last week, we were at the emergency room. How fun is that?
I dropped Larry off at dialysis as usual and he was fine. He got up fine. He was walking fine. He ate breakfast. He still is now semi-constipated, but not too bad- going at least every few days, and much better than the c-diff screaming runs! So, all is well in our world.
I drop him off and head for West Bend to meet Katie for some rummaging. We get about 1 hour and 45 minutes of speed rummaging before I have to drive like the wind back to the dialysis clinic to get Larry.
We were heading back to where Katie had left her car when my cell phone sang- Oh-Oh....it's dialysis. You never like to get calls from them when Larry is on. It usually is not good news.

Beth was on the line, she is the nurse in charge (And a delightful woman). Larry presented with shaking chills and a fever about half-way through the session, so per, Dr.'s orders, they are giving him one gram of vanco through his catheter as a precaution, because he is prone to sepsis in his catheter. They also drew blood samples, but the results won't be back til next week. The upshot is- he has to be there for an extra hour. OK.
So, Katie and I hit a few more rummages and I throw her out at her car and head for Germantown in the now, driving rain...with thunder and lightening.
I get there and Larry is just whipped. He is panting and when he gets like that, he gets himself all freaked out and then gets even worse. I talk to Beth. She says- "It seems like he has some sort of infection going on. We drew cultures here, but I would advise you to take him to his primary to check and make sure that it isn't something else.
When Larry gets done, he is really wiped out- panting and barely able to stand. And....now it is raining cats and dogs and thundering...and lightening. A real heck of a storm. I pull the car under the portico and load him in and decide that I will swing through the clinic to see about an appointment with the primary instead of wheeling him in through the rain and back ou through the rain if they have an opening soon.
Turns out, his primary was out of the office, but they called back for her nurse. Heide and I talked it over and were trying to figure out whether it was prudent to wait until 2:00 (Dr. Miller's first open appt.) or to bring him in and let another Doc look at him. What she decided was perhaps, she would come out and look at him and then decide. Great! So, I pull the car under their portico and she comes out, in the storm (we are talking it rained almost 4 inches while it was down pouring!) Yep- he better come in right now and see another Doc.
I don't remember his name, but he said- I think that you should take him to emergency because they can get the tests done and get the results back. We, have to wait until Monday (Since it is Friday) for any test results, and we are both thinking that if it is the fluid in his lung, he is going to have to have a cat scan anyhow and probably will be admitted.
Off to CMH we go. Thankfully the rain stopped before I had to get him out there. They were expecting us, so we got right into triage and then into an exam room.
Long story short (Thank-you Sarah) They decide that it is a urinary tract infection and prescribe an anti-biotic and say he can head home.
OK......
I look at the guy and say...
"Did you guys call and consult Dr. Letzer at infectious disease. He wants to be appraised of any antibiotics because we have been struggling with c-diff all winter and he told me that he should be appraised of anything that would affect that."
I ask him this several times in several different ways.... And got the ol' fish-eye.
The upshot of what he told me is- yes, we ARE aware that he has just had c-diff. We feel that this antibiotic should not affect that and just will go after the UTI. We did NOT call infectious disease because we ARE Doctors and KNOWwhat we are DOING (This last part is heavily inferred).We are giving him the first dose and you guys can go home. Let us know if you have any problems- or just come back. La-la-la-la-la!
We go to get the 7 pill prescription (7 pills) at Walmart to the tune of $85.00 ($45.00 of which we have to co-pay) and go home.
On Monday, I call Dr. Miller and get Larry an Appointment for after dialysis. At dialysis, Beth says that the culture was growing positive (???) and that means there was no UTI, but they think an infection around his catheter, so they are giving him another 1/2 gram of vanco and then Wednesday, will measure his vanco level to see what to do from there.
We get to Dr. Miller and she says that the culture that the Hospital grew is NOT a UTI so to stop the antibiotics, which she has no idea why they had me get 7 days worth, they usually treat with that med for 3 days. She is calling Dr. Letzer to appraise him of the situation. Keep your fingers crossed that it did not re-infect him.
And then on Friday, at dialysis, the said that the vial was a false positive, so they had to re-draw and will know if there is really some infection next week.
Did you get all that? My head is still spinning! And, today we start on the eye drops for his cataract surgery. What was I thinking???