Yes.....ahhhh, life. One of my dad's favorite sayings was, "Life is great, if you don't weaken."  Where do I begin to tell you about my past week.....

You'll recall that the last time I did a blog entry I'd mentioned that Ray was sick.  Well, he's really no better.  We saw the dr. we'd been seeing a week ago Thursday......he wasn't sure what it was, maybe a flu, and put Ray on Cipro.  They also did blood work.  I called them on Monday.  Yup, blood work was back and "it's okay" says the nurse.  Okay, define "okay" for me I told her.  Is it all within normal limits?  Well, no his white count is high, Bilirubin is a little high.  Oh and so is his BUN.  Hmmm.  Okay.  What are we going to do about it, I asked, because he's really no better.  The GI symptoms had diminished, but he was feeling exhausted.  No energy whatsoever and just "not feeling good."  The nurse said to me, "What would you like us to do?"  Well, gee......maybe a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia?  They don't do those at that dr. office and she told me to go to the ER.  For a chest x-ray?  I thought we were trying to keep this sort of thing OUT of the ER's and only dealing with emergencies there.  I didn't like her idea at all and hung up.

Moving the story along here, on Tuesday I took Ray to the Immediate Care Center in Gainesville because I was told he could get a chest x-ray done there.  AFTER I did all the paper for insurance, etc. we're called into a room and told, "He has a history of COPD.  We can't do a chest x-ray on him here.  It might be cardiac related."  I assured her he wasn't in any acute cardiac or respiratory distress.  But nope.....sorry.....go to the ER is what she instructed us.  Back in the car, drive down the street to No. Florida Regional Medical Center ER.  Well.......after sitting there for almost 2 hours among at least 20 other people.......we walked out.  So we spent 5 hours in Gainesville last Tues. and got absolutely nowhere.

At this point, I'm really lovin' the medical system even less than I normally do.  Came home and called Chiefland Medical Center.  The back story here is.......this is where we always went since we moved to Cedar Key 3 yr. ago.  I was very pleased with the care there and they EVEN do chest x-ray's there.  However, about a year ago the dr. we had finished his rotation there and moved on.  We were told we'd have to see the Nurse Practitioner until that Aug. when another dr. would be on board.  I didn't like that idea.  That's when we switched to UF Shands Clinic in Old Town. (where we were a week ago Thurs.)  Still with me here?

Took a chance and called Chiefland, they still had Ray's records in the computer and told us to come in the very next day, last Wednesday, at 1:00 and we could see Miss Martha, the Nurse Practitioner.  (For those of you not from the south, calling her Miss Martha is a southern thing.  Sweet and respectful)  We went.......and I have to say I was VERY impressed with Miss Martha.  Knowledgeable, intelligent and extremely professional.  At that point she wasn't sure what was going on, but Ray's lungs were clear.  We did a chest x-ray anyway and no pneumonia.  They did a lot of blood work and here's where things get tricky......

Miss Martha called on Friday afternoon......Ray's liver enzymes are very elevated.  First question of course, does he drink?  Those of you that know Ray know the answer to that.  He's lucky if he has one beer or one gin and tonic once a month.  That's it.  Never was a drinker.  So that shoots that out as the reason.  Without going even into more detail......Ray did have some clams to eat 2 weeks ago last night.  So my first thought when ALL of this started that Mon. evening (48 hr. after eating the clams) was possibly Hepatitis A.  Miss Martha is also thinking possibly the same thing.  Now, his Hep A test came back negative.  However, many times it doesn't show up in the blood until 15 to 50 days later! 

Sooo......we're going this Tues. to Gainesville for an abdominal ultrasound and we'll see her again on Wed. for more blood work.  Here we are 2 weeks later since he got sick and we'll still no closer to knowing what's wrong. 

Although Ray is feeling better as far as GI symptoms, he still has no energy at all and is extremely tired.  Based on this.........I've had to cancel our trip to Paris.  We were due to leave a week from this Wed. on April 29.  I just cannot see him bouncing back that fast to endure the flight over, the drive to Normandy and Brittany and then on to Paris for a week.  Yes, I'm very disappointed and so is he.  But we need to find out what's going on with his health.  And as I told him, based on what the tests show we'll just reschedule the entire trip for September.  We love going to France in the fall.  So yesterday morning I canceled my house/pet sitter, the hotels, the apartment in Paris.  And this is where we're at.

Yup, my dad was very right.  Life is great.......if you don't weaken.  See you here next time........