HE'S BEEN AS SICK AS A DOG...

Well what a week...
We are not sure if this has been the culprit...

Tasty Bacon and Egg burger  -  was this the culprit....

Or whether it was the dreaded Gastro and Vomiting bug that has been doing the rounds...
One would have to wonder though as it is supposed to be very contagious and yet the rest of us didn't get it....
Steve enjoyed this lovely burger Saturday on our way through to Bundy and by Sunday morning he was like this.  

Sick as a dog...

He was so sick Sunday afternoon that we called the House Doctor out to him.  He could not keep anything down or in....
The doctor arrived around 7pm and gave him an injection for the vomiting and some medication for the diarrhea.  This did settle down the toilet visiting but did nothing for the nausea that was still raging inside his stomach.  But Monday afternoon it had all started again and he was super sick...Couldn't even sit up he was so sick....  He also had what we thought were a few bite marks on the back of his leg that were pretty itchy so thought it might be good to get them checked out also...
He definitely needed to go to hospital, so i took him into the Emergency department, Pjs, bucket  and all.

Sprawled out across the seats in the Emergency Dept...

He was so sick poor guy that he had to lay along the row of seats in the emergency department because he was too weak to sit up for any length of time...
We had to wait about 40 minutes before getting called in for his preliminary check in.   By the time the nurse saw him,  his whole backside was covered in hives.  He then had to wait to see a doctor.  Once again I asked the nurse could he lay down as he was feeling so weak, and she told me that they didn't have any spare beds....
He was sitting with me in the Emergency Ward waiting patiently to see a doctor when suddenly he started blacking out,  loosing his vision and hearing,  going deadly cold and sweating profusely.  I called out for help as I thought he was going to collapse...

A nurse and doctor came running and it was amazing how quickly they found him somewhere to lie down.... By this stage his whole body was covered in hives... his stomach, arms, back, legs neck, which alarmed the doctors at just how quickly it was all spreading....

Quickly found him a bed in the Emergency Department...

He had doctors and nurses working on him straight away.  He got a shot of adrenaline to help reduce the swelling and then they tried to get some blood samples from him.  This was a bit of a nightmare for poor Steve as his veins had all collapses.  They also needed to get a canula in so that they could get some fluids into him.  He felt like a pin cushion as they tried to get one in both elbows, wrists and arms.  It took them many many attempts before they were able to get a small one in his wrist....  and then it was trying to push the fluids into him as he was badly dehydrated....  I think they pumped through over six litres of fluid into him withing the first 14-15 hours he was in hospital.  He ended up being on a drip for four days.

Getting fluid into him...

They really weren't sure what was happening with his body, so they were doing ECGs to check his heart and it was all a little scary....  By this stage they knew he had to be admitted to hospital and he wasn't coming home with me.    I must admit I still didn't realize how serious it all was and thought that a night on the drip would see him heaps better and probably coming home from hospital with me the following morning....

So sick.... just sleeping all the time... so weak couldn't even sit up without being assisted...

 By the time I got up there on Tuesday morning,  I could see that he was still deteriorating and his stomach was so extended and swollen.  He still wasn't able to keep any food down...  Everything was just passing through him.  You could not even touch his stomach it was that sore and tender.  They decided to do a CT Scan....

Spent most of the day sleeping

 He was just a human pin cushion... and so bruised...

Several attempts to get a canula in here...

Tubes and pin pricks everywhere...

It took them two days to get a decent size canula in..

 They had a lot of trouble getting blood from Steve as his veins had collapsed by this stage.  In fact it took them a couple of days to get a decent size one in by which to run the dye into him for the CT Scan...

He was a bit of a mess.

This was pretty much him for three days.

stomach badly swollen..

 The results from the CT Scan were not the best and showed that he had a blockage in his bowel.  Not what you want to hear at all so a surgeon was called in.  He happened to be a really nice man and was also the same surgeon that was dealing with Steve's dad so was a little confused when he saw that Steve was admitted to the emergency department.  His medical records didn't seem to match what he knew of Steve's dad so I think he was a little relieved when he found out that Steve and his dad were very different people and it was all going to be OK as his dad was scheduled for some day surgery on the Thursday and it had previously been cancelled a couple of times because he had been unwell. 

Mind you it was good to talk to the surgeon,  and he was quite reassuring that he was convinced that there was not a blockage as Steve was still regularly passing through anything that went into his mouth., and he was pretty convinced that it would not happen if there was such a thing as a bowel blockage.   He felt that it was more likely that the bowel was very swollen and bruised from the infection and that it had pretty much been stripped completely.  That at least was good news for us.  He did however decide to keep Steve on as his patient and move him to the surgical ward just in case  things didn't settle down and they needed to do some surgery and put a camera down through his bowel if things didn't improve.

On Wednesday his stomach was slightly better, not quite so tender and he was able to get himself off to the toilet.  

Going for a little walk to the Loo....

Was also a little more interested in what was going on around him...

 Wednesday evening they moved him up into the surgical ward and I knew that he was feeling quite a bit better when I arrived back up at the hospital after dinner, because he wanted to have a shower himself and change out of the horrid hospital gown that he had been wearing for the last few days...

He was also interested in playing with his phone.  Something that he hadn't been bothered with at all the past few days...

Keen to play with his phone...

 He was fortunate to have a private room with a lovely view of the river.  I am sure this also had a lot to do with him feeling so much better.... He could actually see outdoors and see the sun setting... Something he had not been able to do in the Emergency department...  It was a lovely room, and the view was beautiful.  Something about seeing water always makes you feel so much calmer...

 I also knew he was feeling a lot better because he was keen to have a shower himself and get back into his own Pjs.... and he wanted to have a shave... he hadn't had one since before the previous weekend...

Freshly showered, shaven and in his own Pjs is bound to make you feel heaps better...

 It was funny too because he couldn't be in bed up there without wearing these pressure stockings. so just had to get a photo of him with these on...

With his pressure stockings on.

By Thursday morning he was feeling so much better... Still had the diarrhea so it was decided to keep him in hospital still, and just monitor his progress  during the day to see if they thought he might be ready to go home later in the day or the following morning.  He was pretty keen to get home by this stage. 

The specialist  came back for a visit around five pm that afternoon and since he had been able to keep food down for at least a few hours after eating it they decided that I could take him home.  YES YES and more YES..

It is so tiring sitting up in a hospital for endless hours each day.  I feel so thankful and so blessed that I had the week off work and was able to spend  this time  with Steve when he wasn't well.  I am thankful to say also, that he has continued to surprise me by how quickly he is recovering and we are now back home in Rocky.  So good to be home.  However he still has a few days off work to go so that he can regain his strength.  I am thankful that we live in a country where this is possible also.