Refresher Course

One thing I did not need was a refresher course on warrior care. This week has been another busy, action packed week. Next week will be as well. I guess God needed to remind me that I am an excellent multi-tasker.

Thursday night I looked at Chaz and I just knew something was wrong. I took his temperature and yep he had a fever. It was low grade but still a fever. In the middle of the night I woke up to check on him and I could tell it was higher. I woke him up and gave me more meds and water. We both fell back asleep. I woke up to get ready for my meeting. Chaz felt warm but not as warm as the middle of the night. Once again that low grade fever was back. I gave him more meds and water. We agreed that I should go on and go to my meeting. He had me look at his side and I noticed a rash that made my alarms go off. I told him to call his nurse case manager and get in and be seen.

I get to my meeting and he texts to tell me that the Warrior Clinic told his NCM that everyone has that right now and he should just wait it out. Well the mommy gut kicked in. I noticed Chaz had a weird looking rash on his side. Everyone else might have flu like symptoms and a fever, but that rash was weird. He wrote it off as "I slept on that side too long and it's the sheets leaving an imprint." When I got that text I flipped and text back you are never sick. You have a pocket of fluid in your back. Dr Gordon said if you have a fever and/or flu like symptoms to get in immediately. Get your ass to the hospital or I am going to take you there. I text a neighbor and had her come down and watch the girls until I could get back. Chaz said he felt more than fine enough to take himself to the hospital. Once again this is where I say thanks again to HOMH for Chaz's van. He was able to take himself to the hospital.

He got to the hospital and found a familiar face who he knew also had common sense at the clinic and showed her the rash and reminded her of the pocket of fluid. Tests were ran, x-rays were done. The pocket of fluid was exactly the same as the last time it was looked at, but the rash that I worried about was, wait for it......shingles. Yup, Chaz has shingles.

I went to the ATM (Army Ten Miler) expo to get all of our stuff for the race tomorrow. You can imagine how excited I was to learn what the diagnosis was. I also suggested he remind them that he was told to "wait it out." Thank goodness I don't take no for an answer. It's been a while since I had to put on my fight for medical care for Chaz hat, but I jumped right back into that role.

I got back to him and he looked miserable. I have him on a rest and fluids, Tylenol and Motrin rotating schedule. His doctor called while he was asleep and I chatted with her. She was calling to tell me to start the schedule I had already started. She also wanted to know how I knew that he needed to be seen. I told her I've been doing this for a minute. She was very nice. Then she told me that she had no problem with us taking our trip this next week (more info later), but she wasn't thrilled with him doing the ATM. I told her that we'd make the ATM call on Sunday morning. If he is sick and is hurting then we're not going to push it because it's just not worth it. She laughed and said, "Oh good."

So Friday I took a refresher course on warrior care. Looks like I passed and can keep my t-shirt and key chain. Now to spend the day making sure he follows my orders! ;)