May 3

We saw Alan's primary care doctor, Greg Hallas, at 4:00 today. He is not too concerned about the fever. Alan is better today, so we agreed he should just take Tylenol regularly to try to control the fever and pain. Alan doesn't think he needs the vicodin anymore, but we have it if he does. Alan also stopped at the lab to leave blood and urine deposits. Dr. Hallas told us Alan lost 1/3 of his blood. It will take at least 4 weeks for the body to regenerate that much blood. In the meantime, he will probably feel a little stronger and have a little less pain each day as the blood dissipates from the cavity and regenerates in his vascular system. Dr. Hallas suggested Alan not work this week, and try to return half days next week. I see definite improvement. He is still very weak, but the fevers are lower today and he is able to get up and down a little easier, walk around a bit, etc. We will call tomorrow to make an appointment with Dr. Meitz for the ultrasonic endoscopy. It will be a few weeks out after the blood dissipates. Dr. Hallas says it should give us a very good look at that area around Alan's pancreas.  
I'm glad Alan has a Dr. Hallas as his primary care doctor. He likes Dr. Hallas a lot and has a lot of confidence in him. We are also grateful for all the top notch specialists who saw Alan in the hospital. We may never know what caused this bleeding, but they are not giving up yet. The good news is Alan's heart seems to be in great shape. Dr. Hallas said he just had the equivalent of a stress test and came through it with flying colors!