Dear Fellow Blog Readers,
I must first apologize for not posting last night, as I should have done. I didn't return home (don't ask) until 11pm last night, and when I got there, I discovered that my newly plugged in A/C had blown a fuse and left my apartment is total darkness. I gave up on the whole thing and went to bed. And now, at 7am, I am in the Starbuck's with their power supply and wireless internet. Whew!
Speaking of Starbucks, Dad requested a cup of coffee and a scone from that very establishment yesterday. That's right: Dad is feeling good enough to care about what he eats and drinks. This is not to say that this hiccup is completely over, however. Here is the latest medical data:
His vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, etc) remain good (highest fever yesterday was 102).
His blood counts (white cells, platelets, etc) are coming up, but VERY slowly.
His organ function (ie, kidneys, liver, lungs, etc) are all doing fine.
The gram positive bug has been identified as "staph" (no surprise there).
The gram positive bug (staph) has been further identified as identical to the bug in his knee.
The source of the staph infection is either: skin, digestive tract, or knee.*
As for subjective data, I can report that Eileen saw both Dr. Bowers (infectious disease doctor) and Dr. O'Rourke (beloved, but nowhere near as good as Donna Leamy) and that neither of them seem especially distressed about this infection, mostly (we think) because Dad is responding so well to treatment. Dr. O'Rourke told E that Dad would probably be in the ICU for "another day or two" and that he would be in the hospital for about another week. As for Dad, he is convinced that if he could only have some chicken soup, he'd be perfectly well in no time. A matter of minutes. Also according to E, they spent a portion of yesterday singing, but darnit, I forgot to ask WHAT they were singing. Knowing them, it was either the Ave Maria or Hey, Jude.
Love to all,
Jen (for Dad and E)
* further comment on the possible link between the knee infection and the now general infection: it is by no means certain that the infection came "from the knee." We just don't know. Dr. Bowers indicated that it was just as likely from the other possible sources, skin or digestive tract. However, Eileen and I speculated that the skin seems a more likely source because he has had so many needle sticks lately, and also because the knee does not seem markedly worse than before. In any case, knee or not, there will likely be some kind of revision to the treatment plan to the knee simply because Dad (this is according to E) has "call knee doctor" very high on his list for when this adventure is over. Whether the knee is managed by anti-biotics or requires another procedure or what have you, well... we'll just have to see. No one, doctors, Dad, or E, think it's worth fussing about too much right now. :-)
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