So yesterday Dr. Shah and Dr. Bracket mentioned that they would like to spring Johnny before the holiday weekend. They didn’t say it was a done deal or anything, but it sounded like the TPN (or “tube food” as Julie would say) was the main hold-up, and if he started eating this week we might be out of here. Today they were a little more realistic with the timeline. It’s true that Johnny does need to start eating so he can get off the TPN, but there is also the issue of the anti-fungal meds he is still getting by daily IV. Since nothing grew on the culture from the biopsy no one really knows what is happening in his lung, and therefore no one is ready to take him off the anti-fungal meds. The Hem/Oc docs would like him off because of the stress on his kidneys, but the ID docs don’t want to end the cycle early unless they are either sure the issue is gone, they know for sure it’s not fungus, or the cycle is finished (two more weeks from now). They should know more after the next CT scan of his chest on Tuesday. We’ll see if it is enough to convince them to pull the meds. I’d love to take him home, but I don’t want to come right back to the ICU, so I’d rather that everyone be comfortable before they set him free.

Johnny’s TPN was pulled back to 18 hrs/day so he was actually completely unhooked from the IV pole for six hours today. Freedom! Not having to drag that thing around is a big improvement. He made it up to 16 today to play a few video games, and went down to 1 to check out the model trains. He’s seen them a hundred times before, but it gave him a destination.

Julie and I also had a little freedom today. Since Johnny is finally doing better my mom came up and sat with Johnny and Sophie for a couple of hours so we could go get a bite to eat. It was nice.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.