Mama Lisa & Jacob

Mama Lisa & Jacob
Mama Lisa & Jacob Thomas

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Friday Fever, Family, & Friends

Friday Tom woke up not feeling too well.  On Wednesday night he had quite a bit of drainage coming from his surgery site.  When Kay Scott was here on Thursday she said Tom needed an antibiotic to help avoid infection.  The surgeon called in an antibiotic that Tom started on Thursday night.  As the day progressed Friday he continued to feel bad enough that I finally took his temperature.  It was just over 100 degrees, I gave him Tylenol and put him to bed on our new Craftmatic Adjustable Bed that was delivered that morning.  After his nap his fever was just under 101 degrees.  My sister-in-love, Cheryl was here in town and recommended calling the oncologist.  After talking with the nurse she said to continue monitoring the temperature every couple of hours without Tylenol that would mask the temperature.  At 6:00 Tom's brother, Tim arrived for his 23 hour visit.  We were so sad that tom wasn't feeling himself for the visit, however we did enjoy and early "pre-Thanksgiving" dinner of turkey, gravy, potatoes, carrots, green beans, cottage cheese salad, cooked apples and pumpkin bread.  After dinner we taught Tim how to play Skip-bo and I showed the boys how to win!
The guys enjoyed their male bonding with surfing the sports channels until time for bed.  It was our first night in our new bed and Tom was burning up...not from desire, but fever!!  I could just touch him and know the fever was active.  It was a great disappointment for me to not get to snuggle, but something to look forward to!  As the night progressed we were up every two hours checking his temperature and Tom was the first to wake me saying "take my temp" he was so miserable.  At midnight I text my sister-in-love to get her RN advice and she said "call the doctor".  I gave her his phone number and let her have the honor!  The doctor recommended going to the emergency room.  When I told Tom the recommendation he said "not now".  By 8:00 a.m. I had already made up my mind that we would eat breakfast and then head to Riverside.  When Tim came down I asked him to go to CVS and get us a new thermometer to make sure the old thermometer we've had since 1985 was accurate before heading to the ER.  Tim returned promptly with the pharmacists recommended model.  I took Tom's temp with the new thermometer and the "low battery" light began to flash!  I told Tim..."welcome to our world"!
When we arrived at the ER Tom's temp was normal...isn't this the way it goes!?  However, by the time they got him in a "room" the temp was 99.5.  The ER doc was extremely nice and said I did the right thing by bringing Tom in.  They ran quite a series of blood work, cultures and chest x-ray which all proved normal.  Thank you, Lord.  They started Tom on another antibiotic to take along with the other to double up on the fight against infection.  The neuro-doc checked him out and believed it was all superficial and that I was not to worry.  Four hours later I was much relieved and felt like I made a good decision to go even though Tom may disagree.
Westwood High School Friends
Donna Vance Morgan, Meg Truesdale Tuck, Leslie Williams Wade & Tom Weipert
Some time ago we had planned a special visit from Tom's high school friends in Atlanta.  The girls flew into Dayton to meet up with Tom Weipert who lives in Cincinnati (Wyoming), Ohio.  They drove up to Columbus making a stop at Katzinger's Deli downtown to pick up sandwiches for us all.  Since we had an unexpected trip to Riverside they brought lunch there.  We all enjoyed our deli sandwiches while crammed in Tom's ER room!!  What better way to pass the time than catching up with friends?
Once released from the ER we all headed back to the house.  A quick browse through the Westwood HS Yearbook, a little football and some pictures it was time to say "good bye".  What a blessing to know friends from long ago continue to be friends who sacrifice a weekend to come the distance to share their love for a classmate!
Tom's brother, Tim was a trooper through this whole visit.  He served where he could and made the trip for me to the hospital much easier with helping with the wheelchair, parking, carrying and encouraging.  Tim flew back to Orlando this evening. 

1 comment:

Bob Vaughan said...

Hi Lisa. My name is Bob Vaughan. The Anglea family were my neighbors in Cliftondale. I live on Lynfield Drive and they lived on Lynfield Court. Tommy and I were very close friends through Highschool. We lost touch after highschool. I was good friends with all the Westwood Friends pictured on your site. Just wanted to let you know that I have been following Tom's progress and praying for him ,you and your family for over a year. Myself and another friend of Tom's , Tim Mclemore, would like to visit Tom sometime in December. We tried to put a trip together earlier this month, but could not find a date that would work. The three of us spent many many hours together fishing, skateboarding, riding motorcycles, playing basketball, football,camping out, calling girlfriends. You name it, we probably did it. I hope the fever is under control now and Tom is feeling better. If you read this, please drop me an email with your contact information. My Email is bob.vaughan@performancefibers.com. I'd love to hear from you and be able to set-up a visit.