Derb is in the hospital

[WA1GFZ]

Hang in there derb we are pulling for you.
I guess that expllains why he didn't get sick right away.

[Ed - N3LHB]

Dang, Glo...

Hope Derb does better real soon, tell him lhb is counting on hearing him soon on the ether...

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Wow.  When I first read this, I was stunned. I kept thinking how unfair it seemed.

God willing, he'll be out of the hospital, and back up and running soon.

I'll keep you both in my prayers.

[W1ATR]

Hi Mrs. "The Derb", I hope he starts turning around for the better real soon.

Do yourself a favor and just stay away from the Chinese food for the rest of your lives. We used to do the hvac service in about a dozen different joints around the area and they all had one thing in common. A generally nasty way of storing they're food. I had to repair a walk-in freezer that was dead for 2 days before they finally called for service. They had food still inside the now room temp refer box all packed in with ice and otherwise open to the air. (aka, food stored at 40deg instead of the necessary 0deg F..)

I had another where the rooftop unit was leaking condensate water all over the ceiling in they're back room where they kept the food. Every box in that room was wet with condensate and I surely didn't see anything getting walked to the dumpster. (This condensate is the moisture the air conditioning removes from the room air where the customers are sitting. Think about it.)

The outright worst thing I've seen is the dishwasher cleaning something in the sink, then just wiping his hands on a once white, now brown rag, and getting back into mixing a giant bowl of some unknown substance.

It's not just Chinese restaurants either. But that's for another post.

Again, I hope the D starts getting better soon, and heed Bears post above, it's good advise.

Jared

[KE6DF]

Doctors are far from perfect, and It's a good idea to research and understand the health problems you have, but there is a lot of stuff on the Internet that shouldn't be believed either.

I have a brother-in-law who nearly died recently because he decided his doctors didn't know what they were doing, and he didn't need to take his blood pressure meds, that just vitamins and herbs would keep his pressure under control. He believed all the BS about doctors being in league with pharma companies trying to bilk you for the cost of medications.

Well, he had a hemorrhage and ended up in the ER with blood pressure off the chart.

If the hemorrhage had been in his brain, he would have been a goner.

I think when it comes to doctors you should take Reagan's advice:

"Trust, but verify"

I'm not a doc -- just a simple EE, but I read up on Listeria infections after reading this thread. One comment was that it often has a 10+ day gestation period, so it's possible it wasn't the Chinese food but something else he ate up to a couple weeks earlier.

But then I read that on an Internet site, so who knows if it's valid.

[N3DRB The Derb]

Well, guys, here`s the latest news:

Monday they were almost certain he had Lysterial meningitis and began treating him for it. They were also planning another spinal tap for Tuesday.  By Tuesday morning, they were talking about having him transferred back to Georgetown University Hospital in DC (where he was sent initially after they discovered the mass on his brain 3 years ago). Georgetown has a contagious diseases unit that would be better equipped to deal with Tim.  By Tuesday afternoon, they decided he probably does NOT have Lysteria, but they are treating him for it just in case, and now they think his cancer is making a comeback, and that the illness we both had was just some sort of bug that is going around (lots of sick school kids around here in the last 2 weeks). It just so happened that his trip to the hospital has gotten them looking at his brain again, and that this time the cancer is starting to return.  So they say.

I told Tim that if they are right about this, maybe this whole illness thing was someone`s way of getting him in to have his brain looked at before the cancer gets worse. He wasn`t due for another MRI  for at least another month, maybe longer.

I am still having doubts that the cancer is back, since the last MRI was so good.  But it has been 3 years now since the diagnosis, and Tim has been  increasingly worried lately that the time was right for that to happen. That`s what most statistics show, anyhow. 


I have read everyone`s posts since my last post, and I certainly appreciate everyone`s advice. At this point, I don`t know what to think.  I was so certain it was the Lysteria also (which it still could be) but now they have me thinking, maybe it is the big C word....

I have to take him up to Martinsburg today so he can get an MRI done, they had a last minute opening and squeezed him in. They won`t transport him, though, I have to if we want it done today. Bunch of freakin` morons.....

I`ll keep the updates coming as I get them.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Thanks for the update, Gloria. Thoughts and prayers are with you both through this. You're probably right, but always better to play it safe.

[Vortex Joe - N3IBX]

Gloria,
        My prayers are out to the both of you!

        Very Best Regards,
                                Joe Cro N3IBX

[ka3zlr]

Well, guys, here`s the latest news:

Monday they were almost certain he had Lysterial meningitis and began treating him for it. They were also planning another spinal tap for Tuesday.  By Tuesday morning, they were talking about having him transferred back to Georgetown University Hospital in DC (where he was sent initially after they discovered the mass on his brain 3 years ago). Georgetown has a contagious diseases unit that would be better equipped to deal with Tim.  By Tuesday afternoon, they decided he probably does NOT have Lysteria, but they are treating him for it just in case, and now they think his cancer is making a comeback, and that the illness we both had was just some sort of bug that is going around (lots of sick school kids around here in the last 2 weeks). It just so happened that his trip to the hospital has gotten them looking at his brain again, and that this time the cancer is starting to return.  So they say.

I told Tim that if they are right about this, maybe this whole illness thing was someone`s way of getting him in to have his brain looked at before the cancer gets worse. He wasn`t due for another MRI  for at least another month, maybe longer.

I am still having doubts that the cancer is back, since the last MRI was so good.  But it has been 3 years now since the diagnosis, and Tim has been  increasingly worried lately that the time was right for that to happen. That`s what most statistics show, anyhow. 


I have read everyone`s posts since my last post, and I certainly appreciate everyone`s advice. At this point, I don`t know what to think.  I was so certain it was the Lysteria also (which it still could be) but now they have me thinking, maybe it is the big C word....

I have to take him up to Martinsburg today so he can get an MRI done, they had a last minute opening and squeezed him in. They won`t transport him, though, I have to if we want it done today. Bunch of freakin` morons.....

I`ll keep the updates coming as I get them.

Hi Gloria,

 Diana an I know what your going through, go here, go there, jump through the hoops and Then Wait...the waiting is the killer part...I was supposed to start Chemo two weeks ago , No, we need more tests...go see this guy...man it tries the patience...

Hang in there kid, I gotta feeling it's gona pan out it's just a little set back...

73
Jack.

[N2udf]

Gloria,
Remember it's only a license to"practice" medicine.Best of everything to you and the Derb...Lee,N2UDF>

[N3DRB The Derb]

Hi again everyone,


Well, the last time I posted, Tim was about to get an MRI.  He got it, and thankfully the cancer hasn`t  started growing again. So that hasn`t changed, but now they feel that his MRI shows evidence that he`s had one or more "mini" strokes.  They shipped him to Winchester Medical Center on Friday so that he could get some sort of test done that involves putting a scope down his throat to search for little blood clots that may or may not be spreading around from the stroke(s).  The doc he saw there didn`t feel he had  actually had a stroke, but after another CT scan, he said the results were positive for a stroke, so they were going to begin more tests.

  Oh, yeah, they also STILL believe he had Listeria, since he responded so well to the treatment.  I actually contacted a lab down in southern VA that does food testing, and they told me that based on how sick we both got after eating the Chinese food, it could NOT have been listeria, since the incubation period is much longer than a few hours. It`s at least 3 days. He says Tim could have picked up listeria somewhere else, and it had not activated yet, and that the Chinese food probably had salmonella or staph (eeewwww) in it, and that could have set off the listeria. Which explains why Tim got sicker instead of better. So I guess the Chinese are off the hook  for now, especially since the food is so old (yes, it`s STILL in the fridge, in 2 garbage bags in a drawer at the bottom) that they probably couldn`t test it anyway.  And he told me to ALWAYS freeze the food in question, which is completely contrary to what the board of health told me.  Does ANYBODY know what the hell they`re talking about anymore?

Tim was NOT pleased to hear the stroke news, but I tried to tell him that people live just fine after strokes all the time, even after much worse than he`s apparently had. His must have been so slight that neither of us can remember when it might have occurred.  And the treatment? Baby aspirin every day.  I think he can handle that, it should be the one drug that doesn`t make him fall asleep.  They might put him on Plavix, also, if they determine that he has any buildup in his carotid arteries. He is feeling much better physically, though. 

They might be letting him come home as early as this week sometime, but of course we`re not holding our breath.  If anyone would like the phone number directly to his room, just pm me and I`ll let you have it. I don`t know if board rules permit posting stuff like that, and don`t know if it  would be a good idea anyway. 

Oh, BTW, he does have computer access in his room, if that`s what you wanna call it. The interface is sooooooo idiotic that it frustrates the hell out of a person to even try to type in a password. The keyboard is set up to type all in caps (no, caps lock is NOT on) and you have to hit the shift key to type small letters. The "mouse" is a round button, not a ball, but a button that you kind of run your finger around on and push and hold down to move the cursor, and it moves really sloooowwww. Anyhow, Tim wanted to throw the whole keyboard through the screen, that`s how annoying it was. I tried it, and I could see his point. I`m sure it`s set up that way on purpose to discourage people from using it.

So that`s it for now. I`ll post more news when I have it.