Richard is in hospital with pneumonia

Thorin and I took him in at 4-something am this morning and spent about 5 hours in the ER (Methodist Hospital).  He had a wracking cough, fever, low blood oxygen readings, physical unsteadiness, and confusion. The fever was never over 102 and the oximeter readings were inconsistent, but the last two symptoms were very disturbing. 

It's a good hospital. They were very thorough, testing him for UTI, COVID, RSV, flu, strep throat, and abdominal obstruction. Everything was negative except the obvious: pneumonia in one lung, lower lobe. More specifically: "Airway thickening with mucous plugging particularly in the lower lobes. Patchy peribronchial infiltrate in the right lower lobe. Mild bibasilar atelectasis"

They started treating him right away with fluid infusions (he was seriously dehydrated), Tylenol, and a couple of big doses of antibiotic. After a couple of hours of this he was much less feverish and more coherent. I hesitate to say "better" because once he was more aware of what was going on he became increasingly uncomfortable and unhappy, especially when he realized that he would have to stay overnight. Probably 2 or 3 days, in fact. When Thorin and I finally left a little before noon he was still in the ER exam room waiting for a room to open up. 

When I asked ER doctor how bad the pneumonia was, he cheerfully said, "At least it wasn't septic shock."  Indeed. Yes, Terry G was on my mind.