Unfortunately, Sue got a fever the day after the Mediport, a permanent port, was put in place. So far it seems that the fever may be caused by something unrelated to the new port and the procedure. Sue is on Cipro and taking acetaminophen and taking it easy. The fever was never very high and is now down to low-grade.
On Friday night, the on call doctor asked that we go to a local emergency room. Being very cautious is one aspect of going through a bone marrow transplant. So now we are slowly getting emergency room savvy. After the last episode in June, we swore off the last ER. This time we decided to try out an equidistant one at Georgetown (although we did discuss going up to Baltimore). Fortunately, this time the stay was much better in almost every way. Despite getting just as many tests including X-ray and needing just as many nurses to finally get blood from Sue, the overall time was only about three hours instead of the horrendous eleven hour saga. And we were much happier with the treatment. And it was not so much because of the facilities, but more the quality of care. It is true that the other emergency room was a bit crowded, but that might have been avoided had they had taken less time on less pressing cases (like ours where a doctor with privileges at that hospital for Sue called in advance to ask for only labs to be taken).
It may seem frivilous to rate hospitals, but after reading the story in the New York Times today, perhaps it will help get all of us better care.
UPDATE Monday night: The fever is now gone.