This was the most stuff I have ever seen ANYONE hooked up to at one time. When our new ICU nurse came in Tuesday morning the first thing I asked her to do was untangle the mess to make it a little easier for him to get up.
This is what all of the wires were hooked up to. It was more electronics than our TV, PlayStation, XBox and surround sound had combined! Every box on both poles and the oxygen on the wall were being used the past 4 days.
The doctor’s know the bacteria sensitivity (what drugs to use to kill the bacteria). The new antibiotic will be ceftazidime. again, don’t ask me to pronounce it. They are thrilled with how good he looks, and remain positive that he can beat this. What we want to find out today is if the bacteria is ’sterile’ — meaning that it only affected the blood stream and is not in or attached to any organs or lining of his intestines. The ultrasound this morning will tell if there are any abscess in the GI tract. If there are, it could mean more surgery to repair the lesions then, not much changes except the duration of antibiotic treatment. Best case scenario is that it’s sterile, and treatment will be 7-10 days, if it isn’t sterile, treatment will be at least 14 days. Antibiotics must be administered through IV’s, I asked if that means we have to stay in the hospital for 7-14+ days. You think after the week we’ve had, I would learn a thing or two about predicting the future — but no, I haven’t.
This was after they cut down on the wires and tubes. I had to get a shot of the thing in the middle — it looks like a power strip for a computer or something.
The doctor’s looked at me and said, ‘Lets see what the ultrasound results say, and get you up to the 9th floor. We are thrilled that Johnny looks so good, he’s turned the corner, but not yet wining the battle.” If the stars and planets align perfectly today and everything comes back good — then today can be day one for treating the sterile infection.