One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

Jim was admitted to the hospital again tonight.
Since Jim has been home, his condition has continued to worsen. Today the pain was no longer managable and Marie was forced to take him back to the ER this afternoon.
There is good news and bad news.
Good news first: The doctor's original presumption was that his liver was bleeding out again. His CT showed that this was not the case. Apparently however, the process that the liver takes to heal itself and absorb the blood that was previously in his liver cavity, is a VERY painful one. Jim was in excruciating pain. It hurt me to watch him hurt. Especially because it was Jim. The man who heals everyone elses pain.
Now the bad news: His chest xray showed that his pneumonia has gotten worse. There is more fluid now in both lungs...before it was just his right lung. His right lung has accumulated all the fluid back that they drained out of it on the 30th. His left lung is now infected as well. Because of the pneumonia, his lungs are getting weaker and weaker. He can only take short, shallow breaths.
The treatment for this is somewhat complicated. If they don't treat it right the first time, he will only get worse. They want to drain the fluid in his lungs again to make sure that they know what they are up against. If they are able to do a culture on the fluid, they would know better how to treat it. The problem being that he is on a blood thinner still to manage the blood clots that are still in his lungs and in his arm and legs. They can't do the procedure until he has been off the blood thinner for 24 hours. Not sure yet what decision they will make...I will be sure to post when I know more.
For now, they have his pain managed and he was comfortable when I left tonight.
As always, keep Jim in your prayers and close to your heart.
Love to all,
Kristy