Blue Christmas

Christmas Day at our house was a day fraught with concern. Randy spent most of the day in bed on oxygen. He was very weak and listless. He was able to watch the kids open their presents, but returned to bed soon after this was accomplished. I checked on him about every fifteen minutes. Sometimes he would be sleeping other times just resting. Even with the oxygen he was having a hard time breathing when in an upright position, so reclining in bed was when he was most comfortable.

We had a wonderful meal for Christmas dinner, but despite the selection he was unable to eat more than a few bites. This really concerned me. His appetite has gradually decreased over the last couple of years, but this was ridiculous. I have seen toddlers eat more than what he ate over the course of the day. He kept apologizing for not being able to eat, especially since I had included several of his favorites in our menu.

Because of some of his symptoms we thought he might have bronchitis or perhaps pneumonia. He would break out in a sweat for no apparent reason and he has a cough which sounds like he should be coughing stuff up, but nothing would come up. Because of these things we made the decision to try get him in to see the doctor. Since we have no insurance we were hoping that whatever the problem was could be treated by antibiotics or the like. However, when I took him to the doctor yesterday afternoon, the doctor admitted him to the hospital. We are unsure how long he will be in the hospital. As of last night we still don't know the results of tests that they have run on him. I won't be able to go to the hospital to visit him until I get off work, but I will call him this morning to see what the doctor has had to say.

I have asked friends and family for prayer. At this point in time that's about all I can do. We need his health to improve and we also need to find some way to pay for his medical expenses. When he has in the hospital for a week in 2006 we had insurance so we were only responsible for about $300 of the total bill, and I believe the total bill was close to $20,000.