Just wanted to let you know that I was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday the 19th. I just got home.
I got the flu on the 3rd, which gained a cough on the 7th. I went to the doctor on 12th after I started coughing up yellow/green sputum occasionally with some blood in it. They prescribed home-remedy expectorants, rest and codeine cough syrup (which just gave me headaches). I languished for a week like that, then went back to the doctor who sent me to a hospital lab for a chest x-ray and blood test. Thirty minutes later I was escorted to the ER where they quarantined me and took TB, MRSA etc..., precautions by isolating me and wearing masks. They sent me to get a chest cat scan with dye which revealed pneumonia with a necrotizing cavity about the size of a golf ball in the lower lobe of my right lung. The ER doctor told me I had TB but was immediately contradicted by the admitting doctor but who would not get more definitive. They started me on IV fluids and antibiotics, drew blood from my veins and an artery. They took a sputum sample and moved me to an observation unit. They took several more sputum samples and scheduled me for a bronchoscopy to get a deeper sputum diagnostic which eventually revealed the pneumonia and necrotizing cavity were caused my MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a.k.a. A Super Bug, a.k.a. The Anti-bacterial Bug). They adjusted my IV antiobiotics accordingly and I slowly sarted showing signs of improvement.
There was a moment of grave concern for me and my wife right after I was discharged today when our insurance company refused to pay for the most important antiobiotic I'm to take at home ($2,500 for a two week course!). They then refused a pharmacist override who requested they contact the prescribing physician for a diagnostic code which did the trick.
I missed being able to get on Dhammawheel and am glad to be back. I will pick up where I left off as energy allows.
Daniel
