An Update on Chris

Oh my.  I'm just not even sure how to say this.  Chris is bad off right now.  Very bad.  I was unable to see him until almost 5 yesterday and when I got there, he was writhing in pain, unable to talk, temp hanging out around 100-101 with meds on board.  The swelling and inflammation in his arm was horrendous.  What started out as only being directly on his elbow has moved all the way down to his wrist and up to his shoulder.  His arm is twice the size that it should be.  The strong antibiotic that he was on was not working, so they added another strong one.  So he's on 2 now.

His migraine was so bad that he was losing control of his mind, starting to panic.  They had only been giving him tylenol for that.  He was refusing pain meds for his ARM because it wasn't doing anything for that pain.  They took that to mean that he was refusing pain meds for everything.  He was to the point that he couldn't even talk to ask for anything more than that.  I took over at that point and asked for oral pain meds but they didn't work.  45 minutes later, he was even worse, so the nurse gave him muscle relaxers and a shot of pain meds and it took his headache away within 5 minutes.   He was finally able to rest.

I need to be there with him 24/7 and I can't be... and that breaks my heart.  My mother told me that she would come out to help with the kids but I don't think she should come until I know more about what needs to be done.  I don't want her to have to do that, but it may be best.  Last minute flights will be crazy expensive.

This is serious and I'm getting scared.  I have a couple of friends who are experienced in this area and are asking questions and have forwarded my pictures to doctors/nurses that they know who are experienced in rheumatology.  I'm getting  a lot of great insight and great questions to ask, so I'm feeling more prepared.  It's a shame that I have to take matters into my own hands to try to diagnose my husband.  These joint inflammations have been going on for 2 years, but nothing to this extent.  I'm so done with him having to hurt from lack of a proper diagnosis.

I'm not sure what the next step is if they can't get the inflammation and infection under control.  They may take him to surgery to irrigate it, I think.  (They told Chris this yesterday while he was in too much pain to focus.  The nurse didn't seem to know anything about it.)

I have an army of prayer warriors before the Throne of God on Chris' behalf.  Please pray.  Chris needs it desperately.  I have faith that God has a plan.  Chris may have to suffer for awhile, but maybe, hopefully, this will lead to a diagnosis and a treatment plan that will prevent this from ever happening again.

Thank you!

UPDATE-  Surgical team came by to evaluate him and they are unable to do an irrigation.  Not really sure why yet.