9/21/2007 Update

September 25th, 2007 by shahin

Today at about 4:30 they SUCCESSFULLY placed the tube in Shahin’s intestine and started administering the CDIFF killer.  So the danger of any perforation or tearing has passed.  It will probably be 3 to 5 days before we know if the medication is making it throughout the infected portion of the intestine.  Our hope is to see the white blood cell count either slow down or stop from going higher.  The magic number for how high the white cell count can go before we hit the point of no return is 85,000.  We are still in the mid 60,000 range. He actually did wake up today.  I use the term ‘wake’ very loosely, as he basically responded to my voice and opened his eyes a few times to look at me.  He also is moving his head a little bit, but as hard as we tried to get him to squeeze my hand we did not succeed. 

They had to take Shahin off the dialysis machine to perform the procedure and there were signs of his own kidneys doing some work.  So there is hope that once he is on the road to recovery his kidneys will function normally.  All his vitals are holding steady, which is wonderful.  The doctors told us that if it wasn’t for his age and his physical strength he would not have survived the trauma he has been subjected to.  I’m sure his strength will see him to full recovery. Today’s score – still a 3 (for those whom I’ve just added to this distribution list the scale is a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 meaning he is out of the Intensive Care).