Who did you think I was talking about? Obviously, not this famous baseball player. How many of you young guys even know Jackie is so famous?
So, how do you go from a healthy, young, vibrant and beautiful girl like Jackie to the one, still beautiful of course, in a hospital? It's easy--go get an MRI on your knee. This Blog is the story of trying to put together for all of you who have read bits and pieces from my emails what happened to Jackie and continues to this moment. Might take a while but here's where we are at right now. I'm giving you a very edited version. So many crazy things have happened it would be cruel to you to make you read through it all. Most of what I'm leaving out is about mess ups.
Jackie had a knee operation in Thailand October '06. Her knee was still hurting so we went to the doctor here in St. Augustine to have it checked out. He did. He said he needed an MRI with dye injected to give better contrast. Sure, you are a doctor so you should know what's best. (He didn't tell us about the down side of using dye.)
At 4:00 AM the next morning, Jackie was in tremendous pain, throwing up and crying because her knee was giant size. We called the doctor's office when they opened for a prescription for pain pills and the nurse told Jackie since she had migraine medicine to use that. Guess what? It doesn't work on knees. A few hours later we called again and promised we'd put away the migraine medicine if they'd just prescribe pain pills. They did. That was a Tuesday. On Thursday the pain was too intense again so we went in (took 3 phone calls and a refusal to not be sent to a voice mailbox to get permission to come in) and the knee was drained of a clear, yellowish fluid. 25 cc of the gunk. Her knee still hurt but the assistant (Doctor wasn't in) said it would be fine and to go home and rest. Great words, but not true. Friday the knee was again as big as ever so Jackie called (I had gone to work) and was sent to a voice mailbox and she left a message to please call her. They never did and Jackie wasn't in a state of mind to deal with it. I called Saturday on the emergency line and they told me to come in and they'd look at it. They did. They then drained out about the same amount only this time the fluid was bloody. He told her she could go and Jackie said it still hurt. This time we had the doctor so he reexamined her knee and found another load of fluid and drained that one too. It was also bloody. With nothing else to do, we went on home. I told you this was long. How about a photo break: Here's Jackie dancing after she got off crutches in Thailand last January.
We went home, parked Jackie back in the bed (she couldn't walk without crutches and then the pain was so great she only walked to go to the bathroom) and began waiting for healing. By the way, many of you have been praying for Jackie and have sent us emails and I simply haven't answered them because it's too crazy right now. We will get to them eventually (maybe!). Her knee never quit hurting; the swelling never went down and the knee was hot to the touch. She had gone to physical therapy once and the therapist asked her what she was doing there with so much swelling? Her response, which is her standard one, "I'm the patient. I'm just doing what I was told to do." We kept waiting and waiting for something to change, but it didn't. On Friday Leah, our daughter, called a doctor friend and told him what was going on and he told her to get Jackie to the emergency room--immediately. I had called our doctor but he wasn't in so his nurse talked to us and said he would come in at 2:00 in the afternoon and see what was going on. When I told her what our other doctor said to do, she said she'd call us back. When she did, we were told to get on up to the emergency room and find out what was going on. We spent 11 hours in the emergency room but only 2 of those in a chair. They finally got Jackie into a bed and a doctor came by, took fluid out of the knee and said it looked like infection and he'd send the gunk to the lab. She went into the hospital Friday night at 11:00 PM or so. The next day our doctor called me and said he wanted to do surgery on her around noon to find out what was going on. We said OK to that and on Saturday at 1:00 she went in for a 45-minute procedure that took 90 minutes. When they got into her knee they found all sorts of stuff going on, the most distressing was inflammation. After the surgery, we again were hoping that now things would get better. A very fun doctor, Dr. Igor, came in to the room and he is a specialist about infectious diseases. He hung out with us for about 30 minutes and when all was said and done, he thought that the infection that was found was not from Jackie but maybe from a lab worker. That sounded good to us. Look, that cute little teenager is Jackie on her horse, Jenny.
With this good news, we were encouraged. Sunday Dr. Igor came by and said things were growing from her samples that didn't look good, but maybe it wasn't a problem and only contamination. Monday evening, Dr. Igor came by again and said we could go home. Yea! Tuesday our doctor called and dropped a bomb on us. He told us Jackie had a serious infection and needed to go to the hospital and get a "pic line" put in. Look it up on the Internet for details, but it's a permanent port for pouring antibiotics in. That turned into an incredible hassle because the doctor told her where to go so being a good patient, off we went. It was to be a 1-hour procedure and Jackie was there 7. Fortunately, Leah was with her and was able to sort out all the problems that happened because of our doctor not sending the paper work in, ordering the drugs, etc. etc. etc. When she came home, she was in such pain she could only lay in bed and cry. I can't believe how strong she is. I would have killed myself by now.
The infection? This is the best part. It came from either the doctor's office or the surgery at the hospital and it is a nasty little guy that will eat your heart out if the antibiotics don't kill it. That's just what a heart patient needs to hear (Jackie has heart disease).
So what do we think about all of this and the doctor? Well, we like him. We know he's given it a good try to fix her up and he's not out to get us.
Today is Friday and she's had 2 antibiotic treatments and has 26 to go--they are daily doses that take about 90 minutes. It's a challenge to get her to the hospital for the treatments but we have friends who have been amazing in helping us keep up. My job will allow me to make adjustments to my schedule if I need to take her.
Jackie hasn't worked for 3 weeks and I missed at least one week so this is not good. The most amazing part is, God has provided for us somehow to stay ahead.
What will we do next? Wait. The knee is still swollen, Jackie is still in lots of pain and it's still hot to the touch. Jackie had a temperature last night of 101. Dr. Igor's nurse called today to check on her and seemed a bit concerned about the temp reading. Our doctor said it was normal since she was getting antibiotics. We can't seem to get the 2 doctors on the same page.
The big question: Will you sue? We've been counseled by people we respect and trust that we should. We've been counseled by people who we don't respect that we should sue. The consensus is, sue! I don't want to. What I would love to see is for our doctor to accept the responsibility that we came to his office basically healthy. Prior to that appointment with him, we'd been on a bike ride. Now, 3 weeks later, Jackie has a life threatening infection (pretty remote, though) and a knee that is no better than when she started and far worse with no end in sight. If he'd just say, "Hey guys, I'm sorry. I'll pick up this bill," I'd be thrilled and forget about what all has gone down. I don't need a gozillion dollars--I want and need my wife to be better and not to have to pay for someone else's possible mistakes. However, whenever we go to his office, he bills us. Yesterday at the hospital, we paid. Something doesn't seem right but maybe I don't understand the medical "practice."
What would we like for you to do? Pray. We know that God loves us and that in ALL things we are to give thanks. We are even giving thanks in this, though it's through clenched teeth at times. What comes our way, has come by Father first and He knows our needs and strengths and how much we can endure. He is compassionate above all else and merciful beyond comprehension. Whew, that was quite a story, wasn't it? In closing, let me just again say "THANKS" to all of you who have written. Do they bless us? SURE DO! Today we received this email from Tahn, one of our Thai girls:
Dear Daddy,
I believe that Jesus heals mommy. I praise him in advance for that. And I expect to hear good news from you soon.
She even sent us the rose! What a blessing to have friends as far away as Thailand and as near as Saint Augustine praying for us. Because of that, I can say with confidence, "Your will be done." Whatever that may be, we give thanks and end with another thanks to all of you.
Bob and Jackie
