Plot Twist: Another Hospital Stay

Just when we thought we were done with hospitals—surprise! Here we are again.

Sunday morning, Tyler woke up feeling off—sore throat, chills, and a low-grade fever. We kept an eye on his symptoms, but as the morning went on, it became clear he was showing signs of an infection. So, we arranged for non-emergency transport back to Kaiser Oakland.

After a long night in the ER, they admitted him for observation and started running the full panel of tests—Covid, HIV, Epstein-Barr, the works. Yesterday was rough. He was achy, feverish, dealing with gastric pain—the kind of thing that, under normal circumstances, would have just been an awful couple of days spent way too close to a bathroom. But with a new SCI, circumstances are never just normal.

The real concern was autonomic dysreflexia (AD)—a complication where the autonomic nervous system overreacts to pain or injury below the injury line. When AD kicks in, it can cause dangerously high blood pressure, excessive sweating, low heart rate, and skin flushing. The only way to stop it is to find and eliminate the trigger. If that’s not possible, nitroglycerin can be used as a stopgap to bring blood pressure down.

Thankfully, we never had to go that far. I’m typing this from Tyler’s bedside, and he’s feeling so much better. The tests are all coming back negative. And while he's is not 100%—he still has a low-grade fever when the Tylenol wears off and some neuralgia—he’s in good spirits.

We’re hopeful he’ll be discharged tomorrow.