Tough, Tough Day

Typically, Sunday's are one of the better days of the week, but not this week. Sometimes doing what you want to do is not what you should do. Such is the case last night. We had been invited to a party at some dear friends house last night and after the week in the hospital we were not sure whether or not Joe would be up to it. He was feeing good all day, we had voted, gone out to lunch and stopped by the church for Joe to practice his organ prelude & postlude for Sunday and then gone back home and just "hung out". I'm not going to say I told you because I've done that many times today, but I had strongly suggested that we not go but Joe had insisted. Therefore I had said we would make an appearance but would have to leave by no later than 8:30pm so he could be home and in bed early. What's the saying, "best laid plans????"....well it was more like 9pm before we left and only after Joe had stuffed himself with lots and lots of spicy food.

At 4am this morning he was throwing up. At 5am this morning he was throwing up. At 6am this morning he was throwing up and running a fever. So there goes the call to the minister to let him know that Joe will not be at the 8:30am service. I went ahead and showered and came downstairs. Listening to someone purge their meals is not my idea of a great way to spend the morning. By 8:30 he was up, feeling better, ate a little (very little) breakfast, took his shower and we were out the door by 10am so we could make it to the 11am service. I admit that I was in a bad mood. I was pissed that this was happening again and I let Joe know it (I know, it's not his fault, its the disease, yadayadayada). Regardless, I was in a bad mood. I went into the church with him, made sure the piano lid was set for the service and promptly marched back out to the car to sulk. At 10:45am, Lucinda came out to tell me that Joe was feeling light headed and dizzy (I won't even comment on the dizzy part, just too easy). So of course, I went in to check on him. He was sweating and swaying. By then, Allana was there (she is a nurse) and told him the symptoms sounded like dehydration. Of course, perfect sense. If you throw up 3 times in one morning, you would probably be dehydrated. He downed water and made it through the service without any issue.

We came straight home after church and had sandwiches for lunch. I napped a little and Joe just relaxed on the couch. Since Wednesday is Halloween, he had arranged to have choir practice this afternoon at 4pm. So at 3:30 we headed back to the church and he had a very productive 45mins with the choir. Upon leaving the church at just after 5pm, as soon as Joe got in the car he started complaining about being cold and then the chills started. Before we could get home, he was shaking that teeth rattling shake that he does. He went straight to bed, I turned the heating pad on and that is where he stayed for the next couple of hours. The shaking stopped about 30 minutes later and the fever started. He took 2 Tylenol and rolled back over. It peaked at around 102.8, but by 7pm it was coming back down.

Now it's 9pm, he's had soup for dinner and is back up in bed. He has a 7am labs appointment followed by an 8am oncologist appointment at the Duke Cancer Center tomorrow. That means another early morning. I don't know what to think. Something has got to give. These fevers can't just keep coming and coming. He goes in the hospital, doesn't have the fever, comes out, has the fever. Frustrating!!

Thanks for all the good wishes and prayers. Please keep them coming.