Ron and His Not So Happy New Year

During the power outage, Ron had to winterize the pool and hot tubs. It was cold outside and we had no heat for him to warm up with. I don't know if that caused him to get sick, but New Year's Eve, he woke up with a fever. We cancelled our exciting New Year's Eve that we had planned, food, fireworks and all! New Year's Day, still sick. He would not visit the doctor. Wednesday, Jan 2, Ron went to see the doctor, but not out family doctor. The doctor diagnosis the flu, even though the test was negative. I had called his oncologist to see if any special treatment would be required because of his chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. Thankfully the oncologist wanted to see Ron for a blood test. Jan 3, Ron woke up telling me he was ready to go somewhere, oncologist or emergency room, anywhere! 
His white blood count was elevated slightly, but not enough to cause Ron to feel so bad. Dr Beck had us go downstairs for chest x-rays. The technician showed me the cloudy area in his lungs. Dr Beck went downstairs to view the x-rays himself. He came back in the room and said, that is a pretty good case of pneumonia and he wanted Ron to head to the hospital and  be admitted to critical care!
Ron, by this time was very willing to go anywhere to get better.
Ron spent the first night in the cardiac critical care area, then three nights in a room on the oncology floor. Several rounds of IV antibiotics, various other treatments, and Ron was discharged from the hospital.
It took another several weeks for Ron to get better!

We did find out that with this CLL, Ron is not to ignore a fever or any other signs of infection.
I have not made a post about the CLL. I realized that this blog is good way to chronicle the exciting life that Ron and I live.

A year or so ago, Ron was diagnosis with chronic lypmpcytic leukemia. The oncologist stated that Ron would not die from CLL, he would die "with" CLL. I wasn't sure what that meant. After this bout with pneumonia, I did a little research. Many CLL patients die from pneumonia or some other infection that they are susceptible to because of the lowered immunity.

Next time I ask Ron is he wants to go to the doctor, I will not ask him, I will tell him we are going to the doctor. There is no waiting for Monday, waiting for the fever to go down, we go to the doctor!

I believe this has made a believer out of Ron. He seems to be more willing to relax. We have a business meeting in California. He said, lets take the family so we can go to Disneyland! I told him I was saving those funds for my 60th birthday. He told me to save more money, he wanted to have fun now! So, it's off to Disneyland we go!