Dear Family and Friends,
After Timothy’s baptism and our standing appointment with Joe Davis on Saturday evening we finally got our P-day changed over to Monday (we never had time to do chores on Saturday). So after a nagging cough for two weeks we decided to call the clinic on Monday to see if Sister Owens could come in and see if they could do something for her. They said they do not schedule same day appointments but we could come in and get our name on the list. We went in at 11:00 AM and left with a prescription at about 5:00 PM. The first thing they did when they got her in about 3:00 was take a blood sample and do a chest x-ray. They assured her she didn’t have pneumonia but she does have an infection in her lungs. They gave her a sample COPD inhaler and said to use it and take her pills and she would feel like a new woman in two days.
Wednesday came and she felt worse than she did on Monday instead of better. We ate lunch and went to the Emergency Care center (MedCenter). The first thing they did was a full blood workup and do a chest x-ray. The blood work caused them to suspect a possibility of blood clots in the lungs or the legs. So they sent us to the hospital for a CT scan and MRI. They gave us a prescription for a different antibiotic (turns out the one we got from the clinic was for deep tissue and skin infections). We went to the hospital at 6:00 PM for the tests and got home about 8:30. Her breathing was becoming quite labored. We called our mission nurse again and she listened to her on the phone and said I should get her to the hospital in Tuscaloosa either by car or ambulance and admit her to the ER. She told us to get all of her meds and make sure we took them with us. We sacked them up and after being on the road for forty-five minutes we realized they were all still in the sack back home on the kitchen table. We got to the Hospital in Tuscaloosa a little after 10:00 PM. After midnight we actually got to a treatment room in the ER and of course the first thing they did was a complete blood workup (I was a little surprised she had any left to give). The ER doctor ordered a chest x-ray and called Demopolis to get the results of the CT scan and MRI. He said they ruled out blood clots but they were very concerned about her shortness of breath (the clinic said they detected a sleight heart murmur, no one else noticed one). He felt they should admit her and have an ultrasound done on her heart and consult with a cardiologist and they might let her go home after that. So they moved her (and her bed) to the hallway of the ER where we waited until 5:00 AM when they moved her up to room 549. The first thing they did there was take a blood sample (which they did every three hours from then until we left at 7:00 PM that night). A different nurse came in every hour on the hour for one reason or another (check vitals, get blood sample, see if we needed anything, etc.). We didn’t see a doctor until just before lunch when the cardiologist came in and listened to her heart. She told her it sounded good. She ordered the ultrasound and said she suspected it was just some bronchitis. She went after lunch for the ultrasound and then we spent the rest of the day waiting for the results of the test and to see the admitting doctor. The nurses said it sounded like things were okay and we would probably get to go home, so Sister Owens got dressed. About 6:00 PM the Doctor walked in to the room and looked at both of us and said, “Where did she go?” We said, “Who?” She said, “The Patient.” Sister Owens showed her the wrist band. I guess she was a little puzzled that she was dressed. She hadn’t gotten the test results yet and had not spoken with the cardiologist and was just finding out where we were with everything. We told her what had been done and that things seemed to be good. She said she just had to confirm all that and left the room. The nurse met her outside the door and confirmed everything and the cardiologist had told them everything was good on the ultrasound (we never saw her again after she listened to Sister Owens heart before lunch). They ordered a wheelchair to take her down to patient pick up, so I left to walk around to the ER parking lot to get the car and come around to pick her up. We weren’t sure how long it would take for the wheelchair since it took three hours for someone to come and get her to take her up to the room in the first place. She finally went to the nurses desk and asked if she could just walk down since her husband was waiting in the car. The nurse said she would walk down with her. Thus ended our first (and hopefully last) in house experience at the hospital in Alabama. We got home about 9:30 PM and went to bed and slept through the night and most of the next day, getting up occasionally to take pills.
We had planned to take Timothy to Stake Conference this weekend and we had to make other arrangements. Sister Owens takes her medication and just feels like sleeping and has been doing just that for a couple of days now. Most of the Branch members have been calling us to see how we are doing and offering to help in any way they can. Brother White calls us about once a day to check and see how she is doing. I had gone without her to walk last Wednesday and one of the grounds workers that we always see on our walk asked how my wife was doing. I told him she is fighting a bad cough. He said to tell her he would be praying for her. We had never said anything but good morning to each other as we passed him while he was working (I love Alabama). President and Sister James stopped by our apartment on their way home from conference today to see how we are doing. They are really neat people. We will be laying low for this next week to try to get her over this in time for Girls Camp, since they won’t be able to go if she can’t go with them. She will have to take her Flonase and her dust masks and stay inside the cabin all week so it doesn’t flare up again.
Sister Richetto, the mission nurse assigned to our part of the alphabet, told us they have about two and a half times the amount of pollen here than we have in Utah and Idaho. Of course the Magnolia trees are in bloom right now (see attachments). Maybe that is what got her so bad. They all have told us her bronchitis is from her reaction to all the pollen in the air right now.
Keep the commandments and read your Book of Mormon every day.
We love y’all,
Elder and Sister Owens
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