Let's talk about Lyme's Disease

So haven't blogged for awhile.  While I could talk about our trip up north or our upcoming vacation to Disney world, let's talk about the past weekend instead.

My husband spent this past weekend in the hospital with heart block from...Lyme's Disease.

Here is how things unfolded.  Last week I was out at the plant for a manufacturing run.  The run was brutal with a ton of problems, but in the end we got done what we needed to get done.  I had been concerned about leaving Lyle and Keegan because Lyle had been struggling with what we thought was a virus the last couple weeks.

Lyle kept getting these high fevers at night and was sore.  He went into the doctor they ran strep, flu tests and told him it was just a virus.  A week later he started feeling better and then these huge abstract shaped red spots appeared all over him; we are talking spots inches in diameter that look a lot like big hives.  So, he goes back into the doctor, the doctor determines he has a strange strand of mono.

I have to leave to go to the plant so I do.  With instructions to my mom to call Lyle a couple times a day to make sure he is okay.  The night before I leave he gets a bad fever again; needless to say I do not feel good about leaving him and the little monkey alone together.

Things seem to go okay while I am gone.  Lyle is tired and still struggling with a fever, the red spots are still there, but he is doing okay.  He is working from home because the mono diagnosis has everyone worried about how contagious he might be. 

Then while I am sitting in Salt Lake City, waiting for my flight back to Minneapolis to board, I call Lyle.  He says he is having trouble breathing, his heart hurts, and he is going into the emergency room.

The emergency room doctor, cardiologist, and infectious disease doctor decide he probably has Lyme's Disease pretty much right off of the bat.  He has classic symptoms and apparently heart block happens to about 10% of Lyme's Disease victims.  Since his heart rate is dropping into the 30's he is submitted to the hospital. 

I actually made it to the emergency room before he was transferred to the hospital.  It wasn't a great 3 hour flight back for me cause I was pretty worried.  Then I had to get to my car at the airport and take the 45 minute drive back up to Fridley where he was; it seemed to take forever.  Meanwhile I am also a bit worried because Keegan is still at daycare.  Luckily we have very supportive family and friends, so I had multiple offers to pick Keegan up and take care of him should I be stuck at the hospital too late.

Not trying to whine here...but I will add that while I was out at the plant I was averaging maybe 3-4 hours of sleep per day and eating eratically...so I wasn't in the best shape when I got back to town.  It usually takes me a day to recover from the sleep deprivation, lack of eating, and irregular hours I work when we are coating at the plant 24 hours a day.  So I think the whole thing with Lyle being admitted to the hospital was a bit more overwhelming than it would have been on a more "normal" week.

Anyway, they transferred Lyle to the hospital.  He was put on a 24 hour heart monitor and they started IV antibiotics.  Needless to say he was a bit grumpy about it all, but seemed in good spirits.

I was able to pick up Keegan and we ate dinner with Lyle in his room.  The most horrible part of the day was going to bed at home without Lyle and not knowing how he would be the next morning.

Well I shouldn't have worried.  Each day that passed found his heart rate closer to normal and his heart beats more regular and not so erratic.  After 24 hours on antibiotics his leisons started going away, and apparently itching like crazy.  They wouldn't let him out of the hospital though until his heart rate got into the 40-50's and was fairly regular.  I feel lucky that Unity specializes in heart care and is so close to our house.  Also lucky that they know how to deal with this now; later Lyle and I were talking about how not so long ago he probably would have died from this.

The worst part about this whole time for Lyle was boredom and irritation at having to be in the hospital; oh and being stuck with needles a million times.  The worst parts for me were being exhausted, trying to explain this to Keegan (who was already upset that I had been gone all week), trying to run back and forth to the hospital, and going to sleep alone every night wondering what would happen in the 8 hours I slept.

The best part about all of this was how our family and friends were so helpful.  My parents watched Keegan in the afternoon so I could spend some time with Lyle in the hospital (hospitals and three year olds aren't all that compatible).  My parents also helped us out with a lot of other stuff.  We got multiple offers from family/friends who wanted to help us out with stuff (doing laundry, mowing the lawn, watching Keegan).  That was just so awesome; it almost brought me to tears.  It was so comforting to know that so many people care about our family and were willing to help us out when things weren't going all that great.

The great thing is that Lyle got to come home Monday night.  Also taking care of Keegan and everything by myself wasn't all that bad, so I didn't need a lot of help.  It was a bit overwhelming the first day when I got back from the plant, but things kind of settled down after that.  It helped that Lyle was getting a lot better every day.

So now Lyle is at home.  He has to spend an hour to an hour and a half administering IV antibiotics via his PICC line every night.  After that he will have 4-6 weeks of oral antibiotics.  Then he has lots of follow-up appointments; EKGs to make sure his heart function is still improving, blood work, and afollow-up meeting with the infectious disease doctor.

We are hoping he won't have any lasting affects.  Things are actually working out pretty well because his PICC line comes out  right before we leave on vacation to Florida.  So, that should be okay and we are hoping we can still go to Florida because we have been looking forward to this all year.

Just dealing with his short stay at the hospital, I can't imagine how hard it is for families to deal with loved ones that are in the hospital for a long amount of time and not getting better.  On the other hand, we dealed with it and I am always amazed at how adaptable people can be when they need to be.

So, I guess the lesson is...check for those deer ticks and use lots of bug spray.  We never did find the tick that bit Lyle; the doctor mentioned a lot of time the ticks are never found.

Anyway, so that's the Lyme's disease story.  Hopefully Lyle will continue to improve and the antibiotics will do what they are supposed to.

It is worth mentioning that Lyle's stepbrother is going through some rough times right now.  They found out he had a brain tumor last week and operated on it Friday (around the time Lyle was admitted to the hospital).  There have been complications and last I heard they had done three operations and he had yet to gain consciousness.  So, we had planned to visit him this last weekend (which obviously didn't happen).  Anyway, keep him in your thoughts...hopefully he will make a full recovery but it is going to be a long recovery.  Lyle's poor parents were trying to run between the two hospitals keeping track of their sons; luckily Lyle wasn't in critical condition or anything, but they had a rough weekend of it.