Post-Op Day 25

Another agonizingly slow day.

Apparently the doctors don't even bother to do rounds anymore. Seriously, the team did not come in today, but I did talk to the NP. She said they did round as a team, but didn't go into everyone's rooms because the attending who's on is also the chair of some department and there is a crisis going on in the hospital so he had to be in meetings all day.

The immunologist did come by to see us though and had some interesting news to report. He says that the T & B cell subsets they did all came back with normal results. Not just normal for Drew, but NORMAL results. As wonderful as that would be Dan and I can't help thinking they must have mixed up Drew's blood with some healthy kid's. His t-cell percentage which had gone down from 38 to 36 last time we had it checked in January was 55 this time. It just doesn't seem possible it could jump 20 points when it normally only fluctuates by 2 or 3 points at a time. Dr. Lewis (I think) also recommended doing a CT scan to see if Drew has a puss pocket. Sounds lovely. His concern is that the antibiotics may be working for now, but if there is a pocket his infection will come back once we stop antibiotics. Also, they cultured his wound again (it looks much better, more like a scoop now instead of a tunnel) and are hoping that once it comes back they can customize our therapy even further and possibly shorten our hospital stay.

Haven't heard how the chest x-ray looked this morning, but he has been off of oxygen all day and is satting right around 93-94. Dressing change went well and we used only half his normal doses of lortab and ativan because we don't want to over-medicate him or turn him into a drug addict. He was scheduled to have his CT at 6:30 and had to be NPO (no food or drink) since 2:30. About 6:15 they came in and said that radiology won't put contrast through his PICC line and wants a peripheral IV. This is after they've given him benadryl and he's sleeping peacefully & would totally lie still for the scan. I say that is very poor planning. Dan and I were upset, but decided they could do one try for the IV. They got their best person and three more nurses and almost got it on the first try. I allowed one more try and I'm glad I did because they got it. He was very upset though, as you can imagine. Waking up immobilized with four people holding me down and wielding needles would upset me too.

Anyway, we went down for the scan about 7:40 and thank God, he slept through it! He barely moved when we laid him on the tray and then again when we picked him up when it was over. We won't have results until the morning, but either way I'm glad it's over!

Drew wearing his own pajamas

Reading with Grandma Kathy

Ava having a turn in Drew's bed

Drew going in the CT machine

He looks so small in there!