Back in the hospital AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tucson
April 15, 1:20 a.m.

Back in the hospital again! Al's picc line insertion site is infected and the picc line is pulling loose. This all started on Sunday when he complained that the area around his picc line itched. I looked at it and it was red, so I had Bruce and Holly look at it when they were here. They thought that maybe the clear plastic dressing that was over the picc line was irritating the skin, so they changed the dressing after washing the area with an antibiotic wash. Yesterday the home health care nurse looked at it and said the same thing, however, I called and got a doctor appointment for him for today. After seeing the cardiologist we went to the GP. He took one look at the picc line and said "You are on your way to the hospital"...ARRRGGG! For whatever reason, he can't admit people to the hospital, so we had to go through the ER again. After waiting in the lobby of the ER for 4 hours, we finally got to a room. A nurse came in and said, "Yup, that picc line will probably have to come out." Oh goodie! The same nurse tried to get an IV started through the picc line, but it wouldn't hold it. So he started a separate IV with a saline drip. Finally the doctor came in and said the picc line is working it's way loose, (after an xray showed this) and that it was infected. We all are praying that the knee isn't infected again, however, it is hot to the touch and red...but not swollen. More tests were taken; blood drawn for cultures, etc. Doc said, "you will be admitted and we will have to feed the antibiotics thru an IV until we can see if we can run another picc line." Oh goodie again. So the plan is for them to remove the current picc line tomorrow and keep Al a couple of days; then insert a new picc line. Of course, this all depends on the results of the cultures, blood tests, etc. and IF the knee isn't infected. If the knee is infected again, all bets are off when he will get to come home, but I don't want to go down that road right now.

I am way too tired, but can't sleep. Things were going so well and he was really beginning to feel good. He had asked the cardiologist today about possibility of getting into a cardiac exercise class. He doesn't feel bad now, however, I thought something might be going on as he said today at lunch that he wasn't hungry and didn't feel "right". That rings alarm bells in my head. And we both had just talked about going up to Showlow, Pinetop, Alpine to look at areas up there for possible summer living if we couldn't go north; and that is all it took! WE JUST MENTIONED GOING ON A TRIP and he gets sick. YYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE.

More tomorrow when I know more.