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January 6, 2007 , Day 81
Friends,
This is Menchie on the keyboard.
The last 2 days were very busy days for us. Thursday morning I went out to pick-up Ted's compounded medicine for GVHD. When I came back he was flushed and having chills. I took his temperature and it was 103.3. I called Scripps Green Hospital and was advised to bring him in. He was admitted that day. They drew blood for cultures and started some antibiotics right away and infused lots of fluids to hydrate him. His blood pressure was way below his normal also.
Yesterday afternoon some of the blood culture results came back and they found out that his Groshong catheter was infected. So they immediately ordered to have it pulled. He was not very happy parting with his catheter, but it had to go. They also gave him RBC. They gave him Tylenol and Benadryl before the RBC infusion which makes him drowsy. While the RBC was being infused using the catheter, the nurse was looking for veins to start an IV line. She had a hard time finding one, so they had to call for help in starting a new line. While that was going on the vascular surgeon came to pull the catheter, so he needed to wait. Then the Physical Therapist arrived to take him for a walk, which was a bad timing for her also because Ted was realy groggy from the medicine and a surgeon was already waiting before her. After 2 tries they successfully got a new IV line. They switched the RBC to the new line and the surgeon started pulling the infected catheter. He had a little bit of difficulty to pull it out, since the tissues had grown into the catheter sleeves. So he pulled the catheter out leaving the sleeves in. What an afternoon for Ted. Good thing he had a good nights sleep the night before.
No fever since Thursday afternoon. Today he woke up feeling much better. His blood pressure is back to normal. He even managed to do some exercises before breakfast. The Physical Therapist came and he walked with Ted outside for about 3 circuits of the atrium and did some leg exercises.
On the medical front, he is getting 3 different antibiotics (Cipro, Daptomycin and one more that is hard to remember:-)) He also started his Budesonide(compounded medicine). The metoprolol and cyclosporine is on hold until further notice from the doctor. They hold the cyclosporine because his level is higher than the therapeutic level. The metoprolol is on hold because of low blood pressure.
This morning Ted also started campaigning to go home. But most likely not today. Hopefully tomorrow.
Have a great weekend everybody!
Happy New Year again!
Ted and Menchie
tw@wilcoxent.com
mench@wilcoxent.com
www.wilcoxent.com
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