Well, nothing ever seems to go as planned, does it? Today was no exception!Over the past couple of days, Dad began running a fever (again). He had eaten a little Sunday morning (very little), but has not eaten anything since. The fever, combined with the onset of loose stools, presented the potential of delaying the PEG procedure planned for today.
As the day progressed, the fever continued to rise (a bit over 103 at the high end), as did the frequency of loose, watery stools (more commonly known as diarrhea). Since the facility treats such problems orally or by suppository; they had no ability to take care of either issues he was facing.
So, off to the hospital he went. Since his PEG was scheduled to be done at Baker Center, he was sent to Tacoma General (Baker is across the street). Upon entering the ER, they took a chest x-ray; sent Dad for a CT scan; started a full lab workup (blood & stool) and started antibiotics.
The initial diagnosis is Clostridium Difficile, aka C-Diff; a bacterium which is the most significant cause of Pseudomembranous Colitisa (a severe infection of the colon). According to Wikipedia, antibiotics (which Dad had been taking for a UTI) can cause disruption of normal intestinal flora, leading to an overgrowth of Clostridium Difficile. Treatment method is to stop any antibiotics and instead begin specific anticlostridial antibiotics.
Pray for healing, and that none of the issues at hand delay the PEG. We won't know whether that's going to happen or not until later this morning. I'll try and update the blog once more is known.
Johnny