04/24/2019
An overdue update:
Charles went home from the hospital on Monday after the shock treatment to his heart worked. However, there seems to be much more to the story...
Last week he was complaining of not feeling well and a lot of muscle cramping. When he arrived at the hospital last Thursday, his potassium and magnesium were almost non-existent.
After his release on Monday, within 3 hours he was calling 911 and back to the hospital. He couldn't breathe. All weekend, he kept telling them he couldn't breathe and they blew it off, attributing that to the A fib.
It took the ER doc less than an hour to pull up the x-rays that were taken each day of his stay and see that his lungs were filling with fluid, and he was basically drowning. He had gained 4 lbs. in 4 days because of fluid. Lots of lab work had been done and his white blood cell count was elevated. All of that information was practically ignored. "A fib was the cause of his problems" as far as the staff upstairs (aka cardiologist on call) was concerned.
Piecing it all together, it seems the problems stemmed from a pretty bad lung infection. Which depleted his potassium & magnesium. When those levels dropped, it triggered the A fib. But the infection wasn't treated during his initial stay. I'm happy to tell you that once it was diagnosed, the antibiotics & steroids they have been giving him, along with Lasik (?spelling?) were doing the job within 12 hours. I visited him yesterday afternoon and they expect to discharge him again today.
Seems this was a pretty close call for him. As always, words don't express our gratitude for your patience and support. ~Crystal
