ICU stay update

On Saturday night around 8pm, Jason had a temperature of 100.7, relieved after tylenol given. Last night, his temperature only went to 100.4 at 6pm. Neither of these are considered "fevers" by hospital or sepsis standards, but it is a very good example of what he has been doing every day. Because it isn't a big deal by hospital standards, no one seems to be making a big deal about it here. It is frustrating, because this is what brought us in in the first place. Anyway...since 6pm last night, all documented temperatures are normal. 2 IV antibiotics still continue and they want to continue them today. The reason for this is because WBC count have been trending down, and today there was a slight increase. The doctor that rounded at 11am today had no explanation for that. If this had not happened, he had planned to stop one of the two antibiotics.

WBC (white blood cells)

7/28 (clinic): 21.9

7/28 (ER): 20.62

7/29: 15.25

7/30: 13.48

7/31: 17.16

The one that doesn't always like the kidneys (vancomycin) have not harmed his kidneys. His creatinine levels record lower than normal, but this is probably disease related. Creatinine is a normal waste product of muscle breakdown-if muscle mass isn't normal, the number can be lower. I mention this because we look at this number for kidney function as well. The kidneys filter this waste and removes it from the body. If the number were HIGH, it would show kidney damage. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is another way to measure kidney function. It look at another waste removed by the urine and kidneys, and this number is normal as well. Finally, the doctors and pharmacy monitor the amount of this drug in the blood stream to ensure correct dosing. The levels have also all been therapeutic to keep him at the same dosing (these are called vanc troughs-there was one drawn prior to the 4th dose and one drawn prior to the 7th dose).

Neither of the blood cultures drawn Friday have grown any bacteria-YAY! This is not a final negative yet, but usually if there is bacteria in the blood, it would have grown in the petri dish already. This is good news because his infection in not systemic. It is not all over the body, which would be a true sepsis case and harder to treat. The sputum sample given Friday night is insignificant as well (shows "normal respiratory flora"), so they got another specimen last night from his trach. The rounding doctor plans to talk with the pulmonologist this afternoon to discuss his case. They want to see what the WBC is with tomorrow's labs as well.

Unfortunately, being we did not get out of the hospital by today, we had to cancel the appointment for today to start the insurance process of getting a communication device. This has been rescheduled for August 15.

Jason says he "feels fine" or says "a little better," but he really doesn't want to be here!