Brad's Illness

Shortly after we returned home from Costa Rica, Brad started having pain in his left shoulder and chest. After experiencing pretty bad pain and decreased range-of-motion for several weeks we finally consulted with our doctor friend who sent us to Urgent Care where Brad had an x-ray and was diagnosed with Costochondritis. Thinking that it might be a set-back from his spinal fusion, Brad was also in contact with his Neurosurgeon who prescribed a steroid dose pack. After finishing the steroids, the pain only intensified causing Brad to just lay in bed, on one side, in the fetal position without moving. We searched for answers everywhere including the Chiropractor, Physical Therapist, Family doctor, and Orthopedic doctor, while still waiting to see the Neurosurgeon. I tried to convince Brad to go to the ER, but he didn't want to due to all the Covid 19 cases. Finally we saw the Neurologist who told Brad that he needed to go right to the ER (yet Brad still continued to argue if it was really necessary!). 

So very long story short Brad was hospitalized for almost two weeks during which time he had surgery with two chest tubes to clean-out an abscess in his left chest cavity (that was caused by a tooth abscess he had back in December which had seeded to his chest). And to make matters worse, that was the same time hospitals put a band on all visitors due to Covid 19, so I couldn't be there during any of it! I've never seen Brad so depressed!

 I smuggled in a little care package and some DP that our friends got for him, but there was just no consoling him (that smile is really just a pained-look of mental and physical anguish!).

 This is pretty much how he looked during all of our Facetime visits, and several times he begged me to come and sneak him out of the hospital. He also asked the surgeon if he could get his last chest tube out early, and the surgeon gave him a verbal lashing stating that Brad was "one sick cookie" before going into surgery, and that he wasn't going to remove the chest tube until everything was completely healed. One night I even had a nightmare that somehow Brad made it home on his own, but still had his chest tubes in! 

Brad finally made it home!

But as you can see, it was a long recovery! Since Brad doesn't have a recliner, we bought a zero-gravity camp chair from Costco so that he could sit and recline comfortably without being in pain.

He was also sent home on IV antibiotics so I used our lamp as a make-shift IV pole. Luckily I'm a nurse and know how to administer IV antibiotics because there wasn't any teaching going on since no one was allowed in the hospital. I literally picked Brad up at the curb, after they wheeled him out of the hospital doors. 

I also had to figure out what to do with this mess! Luckily again, I already had sterile gauze and nursing tape for redressing his wounds. I also removed all of his stitches, and ransacked my first-aid kits in order to find steri-strips for one of the chest-tube sites that wasn't closing properly.   

After a little socializing, and receiving the proper sustenance...

chocolate & taffy from my brother Matt and his wife Brei,  

and peanut butter fudge (of which I may have had a bite or two) from my friend Christen,

he started feeling a little better. 

One evening while Facetiming Brittney, he accidentally turned himself into a pig,

and then he turned me into a mouse! It was so good to hear him laugh again!

Healed scars from opening the chest and two chest tubes. I think nurse Ali did a pretty darn good job!

We are now in our new home and he is still on IV antibiotics which will soon be changed to oral. He's not out of the woods yet, however, and will meet with an orthopedic specialist in a  couple of weeks to discuss the next treatment plan for an infection that is still lingering in his sternoclavicular joint and clavicle. Thank you for all of your prayers, and you can continue to send them our way!