What ever happened to Heather Garbutt

BOX SCORE
Element	Current	Std. Range	Trend
Hemoglobin	9.1	13-17	v
Platelets	98	140-375	v
ANC	33,930	1800-8300	v

Heather Garbutt has been murdered. 

    They found her in her cell, where she had been killed in a very unpleasant way. Chris wouldn't go into details, but it involved knitting needles. 

    She left a note in one of her drawers:

    THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME. ONLY CONNIE JOHNSON CAN HELP ME NOW.

Hello, Tom, can you hear me? 

Why are there suddenly half a dozen people in my room? 

Jill was just reading me something about Heather Garbutt and Connie Johnson. My chair is reclined, and they are attaching wires to me. There's Kari and Dr. Brow, and nurse Amy and nurse Cathie and Charge Nurse Laura, and someone else I don't know. Ah, there's Jill, but what is she doing on a folding chair instead of the settee with a book in her hand? 

This was the bizarre scene in my room yesterday. It seems that, while Jill and I were reading from our latest mystery, "The Bullet That Missed," by Richard Osman (BTW, a very amusing writer), Jill asked me a question, and I didn't respond. Thinking I was just "in a box," as she calls it when I get deeply absorbed, she asked me, "Are you all right?" Apparently, I slowly turned my head toward her and even more slowly nodded. Then I became completely unresponsive, with my eyes wide open. 

For this to happen while we were in the middle of a spooky novel probably didn't help. Jill ran and told Laura we need help, and the next thing I was aware of was the scenario above. I didn't feel ill,  just confused. Kari, my NP, told me that I was apparently wide awake but had been unresponsive for a couple of minutes, and she started to get spooked. Well, that was enough for me. I started to get spooked. 

The person in the room whom I didn't know, introduced herself as an ER nurse or ICU nurse or something. She asked what I remembered. I told her I remembered having a very slight tinge of nausea and my face feeling warm. She said that made her concerned that it could be my heart. 

Kari ordered blood tests, including D-dimer, a test for blood clots, and Troponin, a test for heart muscle damage. The D-dimer came back elevated, but the Troponin came back negative. At that point Kari was concerned about a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that comes loose in a vein and travels to the lungs, thus blocking blood flow to the lungs. Did I mention that is a bad thing?

Next on the menu was a CT scan of my heart and lungs, which I'm glad to say did not show any abnormalities. That fact, however, left us with the question, what caused this crazy escapade. Kari mentioned the possibility of a seizure, but more or less dismissed it, because afterward I was my usual spunky self, whereas seizures tend to leave one totally drained of energy. I remember telling the crowd, "Don't ever say I don't know how to assemble a party on short notice." 

Later in the afternoon, Kari and Dr. Brow were leaving and said they wanted to get a look at my brain, meaning another CT scan. Amy came in and said the radiologist on call told her that I would need 6-8 hours for the contrast medium from the lung CT to clear from my system. So, the brain CT was scheduled for 9:30 pm. That's an hour and a half past my normal bedtime. As it happened, the transport operator who was to take me to the CT facility didn't arrive until 10:15. The CT took about two minutes and then I waited for a ride back to my room for another 20 minutes or so. I finally got to bed at 11 pm. If you notice any typos in this post, that's the reason. 

So, now it is Good Friday, and I am still wondering what happened to me. I feel fine. I still look rather dashing, if I may say so. I'm still waiting on the results of a new Troponin test and the brain CT. Please stay tuned on most of these same stations for further updates. 

And may your day be relatively boring. But watch out. In the morning before these shenanigans, Kari and Dr. Brow came by on rounds and told me I was still their most boring patient, because I never have any untoward episodes. I thought that called for a little wake-up on their part. Know what I mean??

Praise the Lord, as we remember the day on which He gave His life on a Roman cross so that you and I might live forever; and look forward to a Happy Easter morning, when we celebrate his Resurrection to new life. 

HE IS RISEN!