09/19/2007 Update

September 25th, 2007 by shahin

Shahin’s white blood cell count is way up.  It’s now up to 54,000 (normal being around 10,000).  They are trying different medications to try and get the infection under control without giving the CDIFF a chance to come back. They did a cat-scan on him at about 5 this morning to take a closer look inside his abdomen.  It revealed an 8 to 10 inch stretch of his small intestine, which is either dead or dying or still heavily effected by the CDIFF and is still swollen.  We are hoping it’s the later, as if it’s truly dead/dying then we have to have it removed immediately before it becomes septic. Obviously, going under the knife for a third time in two weeks, along with his current state is something that nobody wants.  They are going to do another scan tonight to determine what’s going on and determine a course of action. 

Now some good news.  His vitals are all in the acceptable range.  He is still completely off ALL blood pressure medication and holding steady.  As of one hour ago they turned off his paralysis medication and he is behaving very well and is not fighting the breathing machine too much.  This is the first step to removing the breathing tube.  Next step, which is the least fun for him and all of us, is to bring him out of sedation.  This is where he had the most traumatic experience after his first operation.  But a necessary step, prior to the removal of the tube.  I’m still not ready to promote him from a 3 to a 4.  I wish I could. Today is our mom’s birthday.  I was really hoping for some fantastic news about Shahin’s condition to make her day a little more special.  But we all still have the gift of having him around and have hope.  I’m sure mom will take a belated birthday present.