Responsiveness is one of the key markers of Taylor’s medical status (well, anyone’s medical status). Between responsiveness and balance, they pretty much tell the story. Taylor’s level of responsiveness (“LOR”) has decreased over the past few days – but it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between decreased neuro LOR and plain-old-fatigue. He may start the morning doing well, feeling strong, and then lapse into a very quiet, unresponsive young man. For hours. He was running a fever this morning after a couple days of temps within range. His heart rate has been elevated for both standing and resting positions. He doesn’t want to move around too much, opting often to climb back into bed rather than sit in his recliner after tasks. And he falls quickly to sleep. For hours. Yesterday, he “was super tachy” when standing. Alarms sound from the pulse/oxygen meter he’s attached to if his numbers creep out of a desirable range, and tachycardia was sending the alarm into a pretty steady drone. Although Taylor’s LOR was low, and he was not speaking at all, I asked him to sit back down on his bed, and told him the alarm he was hearing was because he was tachy. He nodded. I asked him if he remembered what part of the body is affected when you’re tachy, and he said “the heart” and pointed to his heart. I asked what is happening with the heart if tachycardic, and he said clearly, “an elevated heart rate.”
T agreed that we needed to verify if that HR was real; it maybe something with the probe, and maybe it wasn’t really that high. He found his pulse, and counted beats as I watched the clock for our agreed upon 15-second interval. He told me his count (which matched mine) and immediately multiplied by four to get beats/minute. It was a real number.
That was pretty much all he said all day.
His heart rate is still quite high; high enough that his neuro team wants him on bed rest today. No walking. And he is getting 2 liters of fluids and napping as I type this entry.
Taylor’s decreased LOR, tachycardia, fever and refusal to speak – pretty much at all, has his team(s) ordering blood work, a CT, prep for a lumbar puncture, bed rest and fluids.
He did say this morning that he just didn’t feel good / didn’t feel himself.
Any results will be posted when they come in.
Praypraypray
