12-10-03

Dear Family and Friends,

Last night, the kids and I stopped by Tim’s room before bed. He’d been ill all week and seemed much worse. Yesterday, he was started on oxygen and breathing treatments because his breathing seemed labored. Last night, his respiration was over 50/min and his oxygenation was down to 85% and not responding to more oxygen (should be above 90%). An ambulance was called and Tim was taken next door to the ER. He had a fever of over 104, heart rate of over 150, and his pupils were uneven.

The doctor said he has aspiration pneumonia. His white count was 18 (normal is 10). He is being given breathing treatments, oxygen, antibiotics and fluids. The doctor said that hopefully we will see an improvement in a few days. Tim already seems better to me. Respiration and HR have come down. Temp is down to 102.5. His pupils are still off and I am waiting to see what the doctor says about that. The doctor said that Tim’s heart didn’t sound right, so they will probably run some tests to see what is going on there. The last bad infection he had did some damage to his heart and the doctor said that he thought it sounded like Tim had some fluid around his heart .

We finally got him settled in room 316 at West Valley Hospital about 4 am.

I’ll keep you posted.

In His grip,
Carole