09/18/2007 Update

September 25th, 2007 by shahin

We started the day on a bad note.  His white blood cell count doubled over night to about 48,000 and is keeping in that range as I type.  Again, we are hearing “we don’t know” from the doctors who are treating him.  They have taken blood cultures from just about everywhere suspicious, but cultures sometimes take 2 to 5 days to show any results.  We are again anxiously awaiting the results.  The down side is that, even if they do find the source, the treatment options may be limited.  Why?  Because of that CDIFF virus I told you about a couple of days ago.  If they put him on other antibiotics to address the new infection, the opportunistic CDIFF virus will again start its havoc-raising. We also started the day with the blood pressure being all over the map.  The nurses (aka angles) were playing the balancing act between blood pressure medication, liquids, etc. all night long and throughout today.  However, as of right this minute he is holding steady at a very nice 120 (the lower number for some reason does not matter right now). 

His liver enzymes are on the rise.  Yet another positive sign. His kidneys are unfortunately are not doing well.  But, they say that they can take up to six weeks to start going back to normal.  So, there is hope that they may kick in once he starts getting better. 

His ventilator is down to 45% oxygen.  Again, a positive sign that his lungs are absorbing and distributing more oxygen by themselves, indicating that his pneumonia is getting better.   There is talk amongst the doctors to start to bring him out of paralysis some time over the next couple of days.  Mostly due to the fact that his lungs are doing better.  They will bring him out of it long enough to make sure that he can breathe by himself.  Once they establish that, they will take his breathing tubes out, which is a good thing, as it can be a cause of ulcers and infection having been in his lungs for over a week now.  There is also talk about giving him a tracheotomy to enable them to take the tubes out and be able to better ventilate him. 

Bottom line is that there is a lot going on, but NOBODY is sure what the best course of action is due to his very weak condition. WE NEED A MIRCALE.  Please pray for one.