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SHIVERS


It was five days to go for Deepavali, our biggest festival.   It was the usual busy day, went to the Siddha hospital for a treatment in the morning, followed by physiotherapy, then some cleaning and we were resting for a bit around 4:30 PM when our nurse practically burst into our room saying something seems amiss with our father. 

He was shivering like he was out in the snow with summer clothes on and had goose bumps all over.   The temperature reading showed nothing alarming.   I had seen him like this once before in the hospital when he developed sudden shivers and our surgeon mentioned it was a sign of urinary infection.    I was sure it was matter of time before his temperature shoot up.  It did, in the next 30 minutes.   The reading was 104 degrees.
 
This wasn’t neither unexpected nor were we unprepared.  Since we knew the bacterium Klebsiella Pneumoniae was happily residing in his urinary tract in large numbers, and as it was asymptomatic we were almost waiting for the temperature to raise.   If it did, we had consulted the doctors on the next course of action.

When this happened our doctors were out of town and not reachable.  Without getting our father admitted, we decided to start him on the recommended dose of antibiotic Xylstin at home.  An IV line to administer the antibiotic.  Never mind his condition, we bundled him up in our car, took him to the emergency at a hospital close our place and got the IV line in place.   The first dose was started at around 6:30PM.

Although unnerving to do it all by ourselves without a hospital infrastructure, with mother and grandma looking clueless on what was going on, I guess it turned out alright. 

Xylstin is a very strong antibiotic with some chances of affecting the kidneys adversely.  We were recommended to check his serum creatinine levels once in every two days to ensure his kidneys were functioning alright.  The test results were normal and we are now done with the antibiotic dose.

No more temperature, but he looks tired and is a sleepier than usual.  Is it something to worry; maybe, only time will tell. 

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