More of the same/then progress/then not

Here is what I had typed out last evening to post this morning, for yesterday's activity

Still no improvement for dh. The pain meds every 2 hours at a lower dose seem to be working better. He was even able to go an extra 30 minutes between doses last time. I'm not sure if he misunderstood the doctor or what. But he texts me in the afternoon and says the doctor said she doesn't know why his pancreas is necrotizing, whatever that means. I look it right up and it means it's dying!! I'm freaking out, not wanting to tell him what it means. He did end up looking it up on his phone. Dr did tell him she put in a consult request with a specialist.

So, I'm on the verge of freak out mode. Something like that is so serious and probably would be surgery, at a minimum transfer to a bigger hospital. DD is telling me if he has to have surgery she will fly over to be here. She can bring her laptop and work from that/here if need be.

I'm still waiting for a call from the dr, but a nurse did call to update me. She said the CT scan they did this morning was w/o contrast and that doesn't let them see if there might be necrosis (I had not brought up the necrosis yet). His enzymes are still good, his lipase is good, so that's about the only thing that is good. The scan still shows his pancreas is inflamed. He's still in a bunch of pain. They are going to continue to treat as acute pancreatitis with continued IV fluids, antibiotics and of course pain meds. She said the pain med management was a chief concern. I then told her about what is happening at night. I said now that he's on 2 hours in between, with half dose, they cannot let him go 6 1/2 hours between doses!! She said she will make sure the night staff is made aware of the change to every 2 hours and that he needs it done every 2 hours.

I then rounded back to the necrosis question. I said so he doesn't have necrosis? She said that is not diagnosed at this time, and the no contrast scan won't show that well enough. I said well whatever the doctor said to him made him think that is what is going on, so she freaked him out. She then said the dr does have a consult request in with a GI specialist and I asked if the dr could call me after she has that to update me.

So, at least I'm in a little less freakout mode after this call, but I'll feel better once I talk to the dr too.

Longtime readers may remember that I've had dh on 6 mo short term health insurance policies since they became available again. I figure I have probably saved at least $24,000 in premiums over the past 4 years or so (I forget how long I've been using that for his insurance. I think it was towards end of 2017. The coverage is high deductible, but covers up to $2 million. BUT, this 6 month policy ends on Sept 4....and getting a new 6 month policy won't cover pre-existing...you see where I'm going with this. I had remembered hearing something about the ACA plans now being available , not having to wait until the end of the year for open enrollment, due to covid, so I went online to check and put in all his info and he is eligible for their plans and able to start him on a new plan on Sept 1. I signed right up for it and paid. Of course the ACA plans do cover pre existing. Then I noticed on the gov't website that this open enrollment time during covid expires in 3 more days! I got that done in just the nick of time, didn't I? I'm so glad I decided to look into it when I did and not put it off for a week or so. Saving the $24k I have saved in premiums (and he has never needed to go to the dr since this week) I of course don't mind having to spend the premium $ now.  I knew I would, at some point. I'm going to guess he's going to have lots more medical expenses in the coming weeks/months, if not life long now.

In the meantime of all this dh has been telling me the past 2 days there is no ac. I'm like how in the world can a hospital not have ac?? So, I'm texting Mr. neighbor with an update on dh. Mr. Neighbor used to be an administrator at the hospital, until a couple years ago. I said "is there ac at the hospital? asking for a friend :)"  He says yes, for sure. They have to have it for patient comfort and each room is on it's own control. A little while later dh texts me that the nurse is looking for a fan for his room. I say Mr. Neighbor says there is ac there! wth?! Then he says this nurse (a traveling nurse) just caused a ruckus because she is complaining about how hot dh's room is. I text Mr Neighbor back ...no ac. Then dh texts me back that they are moving  him to a different room, where the ac works. I text Mr. back and he says that's because he just called and complained to the HR lady, who's 3rd in charge at the hospital and she took care of it immediately. Geez Louise! Thank you Mr. Neighbor!!

Now for the better update:  By evening I could tell dh was starting to feel a little better. He was chatty (via text) and said his stomach was growling and he was saying different foods that sounded good to him. That sounded like he was feeling better. Then, after I went to bed, he texted and said he was able to skip that 2 hour dosage of pain meds. Throughout the night last night he continued to feel better and never needed any pain meds! He did have a slight fever in the evening and they gave him some liquid ibuprofen. About 5:30  he texted that he still had slight fever but doing good. At 7 he texted that his fever was up to 102 and his body ached. I asked him a question back, almost an hour ago and no reply, so I have no idea right now. I'm guessing he fell back asleep or maybe the decided to do another scan to look at the pancreas to compare to yesterday.

So, I think he's definitely heading in the right direction now and having that awful pain go away is huge progress. It was a different night nurse than previous night and sounds like this nurse was very good and she had set her phone alarm for every 2 hours to check on him to see if he needed pain meds. Now we just need to figure out why he's got a fever. He just texted that pretty much since about 5am he's been going downhill, after feeling so much better. Fever, aches, and hard to breathe now. UGH!! They did do blood draw again this morning.