This morning started off with a real bang – literally. There was a 4.0 earthquake at 6:49 that rocked the household awake. After checking to make sure everyone was okay I went to get ready for work. It took me a few minutes to remember I didn’t have a job. So I decided to look at my email and found some very sweet and supportive emails from friends and family.

The day continued to go well. My friend Marika called and we got together for coffee. It was a treat to sit outside and talk to a friend for a while. Rita texted me to tell me that Cindy was in the hospital. Cindy was retaining weight again and need to go the hospital to have the fluid diuresed (giving a patient diuretics through an IV). I returned home after that to make appointments with dentists and doctors since my insurance is going to run out at the end of the month. I even got an invitation to lunch by Rabbi Kelman. Edgar and I went to get new glasses since we qualified for new glasses. Then we went to the store, bought dinner and went home. I got home just in time to take my wonderful sister-in-law Lucy to the airport. I was certainly going to miss all her help with taking care of Pauline and making meals.

As Lucy was saying her goodbyes, I got a call from Rita saying that Cindy had a temperature and her blood pressure was very low. I took Lucy to the airport and then headed over to the hospital to see Cindy.

When I got there, she looked pretty bad. She was very flushed and looked like she didn’t feel very good. Her temperature was 104.1 degrees and her blood pressure was 68/45. The doctors weren’t sure what was wrong. They did labs and took x-rays. Finally they determined that she probably had pneumonia in her right lung. This explained why fluid was building up again (see Pulmonary Hypertension )

Cindy’s doctor had a central line inserted so it would be easier to give her medications, fluids, etc. An hour later, her temperature was at 102.9 and her blood pressure was at 80/45. By 9 PM, her temperature was a cool 98 degrees and her blood pressure had gone up to an acceptable 111/73.

Thankfully, the day ended well.