Once more into the hospital, dear friends.

Kevin here.

Mike is in the hospital again. He went in under his own power yesterday. His oncologist called Tuesday afternoon, after reviewing some of the bloodwork from the infusion session on Monday, with concerns on high levels of creatinine. This indicates some kind of kidney problem -- as Mike says, "one of the few organs not already involved with the cancer" -- and is worth looking into.

So, to the hospital, for some additional scans of the kidney, and as long as he's there, how about some scans of the chest and an EKG. Waiting for the results and monitoring him means he is (was) there overnight at least. Which is good, because he's really short of breath, and bad, because hospitals are not restful places to be.

I got there about 8pm, as he was off for scans, accompanied by Mom. He eventually made it back to the room, and then Jen showed up and we had a little hangout party until about 11pm when Mike's eyes were starting to droop, and then we sent Jen and Mom home. I stuck around for a while. He was tired but not asleep, and we were waiting for the middle-of-the-night scans recommended by the hospitalist, so I figured some company wouldn't hurt.

Hospitalist is an interesting word. Wikipedia tells me that it dates back to 1996, and is used to describe doctors whose professional focus is on a location of care (hospitals) rather than an organ (podiatrists), a disease (oncologists) or the patient's age (pediatricians). Man, healthcare is complicated.

The hospitalist in question was very nice. She'd clearly read through Mike's charts and background information, and followed up on the specifics of why he was in and the chest pain he had reported to the staff while he was being transported to and from radiology. After some thought (and some medical poking and prodding) she offered a preliminary diagnosis of musculoskeletal pain, caused by his heart working overtime to get oxygen to his body with his low hemoglobin counts. The other options, for those keeping score at home, are heart attack (not likely because of the location and symptoms) or pulmonary embolism (not likely because of the symptoms and the sound of his lungs).

The night nurse, Rosalinda, is really nice. I sometimes wonder why people chose nursing as a profession, but it's clear that she chose it because it means she gets to take care of people. She was even doing it to me. I was fine up until that point, but I started crying after they took him off for scans about 12:30 am and she told me I could listen to him (and go home) or stay if I wanted.

More when we know more.

- Kevin