Back in the hospital (again)

Someone today described post-transplant patients as the "VIPs" of the hospital. If anything happens that is out of the ordinary, they want to know about it and tend to act quickly and aggressively with the treatment. This morning, Shirley woke up feeling nauseous and threw up a few times in the early morning hours.  Vomiting is on the short list of "if this happens, call us right away" events.

So we woke up the Transplant Fellow about 7 am and she told us to go to the ER.  They have a triple concern of wanting to make sure that nothing was aspirated into the lungs; making sure that her anti-rejection drugs can be consumed and absorbed; and also want to pinpoint the cause of the distress.  First order of business was getting her stomach settled so that she could take her morning dose of anti-rejection medications.  Two rounds of IV medications and she was able to get her morning doses down about a half hour behind schedule.

But numerous tests failed to pinpoint the cause of her throwing up, so she has been admitted back into the hospital (this will be night #80 since the transplant call). So far today, she's been seen by a dozen doctors (ER; Cardio Thoracic; Transplant Team; Internal Medicine; General Surgery).  They did find a minor infection during a Urinalysis which has caused them to start an IV antibiotic regimine. They also noted tenderness around the site where her gall bladder tube was removed Friday. They have ordered a CT scan for later tonight to see if there is any infection near that site.  

I'll provide an update once we get to the bottom of this mystery.