Back in the Hospital

Yesterday afternoon Lauri began complaining of chest pain, and her temperature began increasing. By dinner time last night, her temperature had risen to 102.5 deg. I brought her to the MD Anderson Emergency Center where they gave Lauri several different medications and fluids in an attempt to get her pain level and fever down. We spent last night at the Emergency Center, waiting for the team to make a decision on if they were going to admit us to the hospital or not. The medications were successful in keeping Lauri's pain level and fever low, but they were only effective for a few hours at a time. Basically, they were successful in masking the symptoms, but not in finding the cause of the illness yet.

They have taken blood for blood cultures to determine what kind of bug Lauri has, and what kind of antibiotic will kill it. We don't expect to have results from this test until later tonight. Until then, Lauri is continuing to take medications to manage the chest pain, which she describes as like someone standing on your chest, with sharper pain on big breaths. They have also taken a chest x-ray, which came back as normal.

We have been moved (finally) from the Emergency Center to a room in the hospital (rm 1026). Lauri must keep her temperature below 101 deg for 48 hours before we are allowed to check out. We will try to keep posting updates as we can, while we both try to get some rest.