Wednesday, February 4, 2009

My brother is in intensive care

My brother David


I got a message on my answering machine today that was from my mom. She said my brother was in the hospital, and in intensive care due to a bad infection that was causing his muscles to deteriorate which can lead to damage of the kidneys. When I talked to her she explained that he had called her from his on campus housing telling her he felt really sick. He had a fever and his legs and back were killing him. She went to go pick him up and she said he could barely walk he was in so much pain and looked terrible. That is when she thought there was something really wrong. When they got back to my parents house she took his temperature and it was 104... That was when she took him in to the emergency room and they began running blood tests. At first the doctor thought it could be meningitis but that was not the case. They also did a flu test but that was negative. Finally they discovered it was a bacterial infection that probably started in his sinus cavity. They discovered that his muscles had begun to deteriorate by doing some kind of blood work which showed an enzyme elevated way beyond the range of normal. That was the reason he wound up in intensive care, because this could effect the kidneys and if the infection went untreated it could eventually result in kidney failure. He was in so much pain they had to give him shots of morphine. Fortunately he is doing much better now and he hasn't even been on the medication for a full 24 hours. His fever has gone down and he doesn't feel close to as bad as when he was brought in. I called the ICU and talked to him myself. He sounded tired and had a bad cough but said he was ready to get out of there because the nurses were bad and it was boring there! Unfortunately they won't be letting him go until another day or two and even then they may just move him to a regular hospital room before discharging him. I think they still need to make sure be is going to recover fully before letting him go. I told him I have never heard of a sinus infection leading to something so serious! He is a healthy 22 year old that works out and everything so I can't believe this happened to him. I am just glad he is getting better and not on his death bed. He is my only sibling so I need him to stay around for a while longer :) I will post an update when I find out anything new.

6 comments:

emily said...

j- so sorry to hear about your brother. you just never know when something can happen to your family or your friends... makes you sadly realize just how much you can take the people in your life for granted.

Marshall and Dana said...

Wow! I have never heard of that either. I will call when I get a second. I hope he gets better soon. We will keep him in our prayers.

Unknown said...

Holy cow that is scary! I am glad that he is recovering. Did you hear about Krista Shawcrofts little brother? The same thing happened to him. She wrote about it on her blog, back in October or something. But they didn't catch it fast enough. So I am so glad that he is having a good recovery! We will keep him in our prayers!

Kathy said...

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I only have 1 sibling too (a brother) and know how important that bond is. Hope he makes a full recovery soon.

Michelle said...

omg, that's really crappy. Is there anything I can do for your mom/bro? Sickness sucks.

PS. Thanks for the really nice "mom" comment on my blog. It kind of made my day :-)

Brandon and Natalie said...

How scary to hear that! I hope he is starting to feel better and things are turning around for her.