Good Samaritan Hospital - aka 2nd home

Well as of March 20, Todd has been admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital. During the week, he was not feeling well and coughing. Wednesday his color was not good. And Thursday / Friday he only made it to work for 3 hours (Friday only).

So Friday night we decide that a visit to the emergency room was in order. Fortunately, his amazing oncologist was on call and registered us ahead. We were sitting in the waiting room for 10 minutes before a nurse came out of the ER to greet Todd by name and said she has our records and will be with us shortly.

We were through the ER with quality care and shuttled to a private room quite peacefully. Five days later, his breathing did not show enough improvement so the doctors decided on Plasma Exchange! What is that, you say? Well it was new to me as of Saturday. Within four hours of scheduling the process, a surgeon was in to perform minor surgery inserting a catheter in Todd's neck (near the jugular vein). Todd looks like a robot or as he says RoboCop with wires and tubes hanging out his neck onto his chest. Needless to say, I removed myself from the room during that minor procedure. This is a temporary catheter for the 5-day treatment and will be removed after completion of this Plasma Exchange.

So on top of his Parkinson diagnoses, he has now discovered he has Myasthenia Gravis and experienced a Myasthenic relapse - almost losing his ability to breath!

So the first day of Plasma Exchange was Wednesday, March 25. The specialty nurses wheel in all of this traveling equipment into his room. The machine reminded me of the look and size of an old fashioned telephone operator's station with all the phone lines crossing and connecting in different locations. Two tubes connected to my sweetheart - 1st on was the exporting tube withdrawing his blood and plasma; 2nd one was the importing tube that brings back Todd's blood into his body after being cleansed and inserting synthetic plasma. It was a surreal experience to see the love of my life sitting calmly through this process.

The process was an hour and a half and absolutely painless. He felt groggy but fine after it was complete. His sense of humor was fully in tact. He teases the nurses that he planned to play basketball with his god son in the room later on that evening after they asked him not to overexert himself. All is well with my sweetheart. He is on the road to recovery. I can't wait to have him back in my daily life to return to our usual routines.

He will be in the hospital 12 -13 days when the 5-day Plasma exchange is complete. Continue to pray for Todd's strength and full recovery with God's blessing.