Tuesday, July 19, 2011

New hospital, same old story.

After nearly 3 weeks with fevers post-ablation, Dan has landed in the hospital again. We went to the ER yesterday just to make sure nothing crazy was going on before his hip replacement surgery. The CT showed an abscess, though that finding is now being questioned. He spent the night battling fevers and some more pain, then went off to have the "abscess" drained. Unfortunately/fortunately, there wasn't much to drain off from his liver. Accordingly, the radiologist just took a sample to culture.

Though Dan feels fine and his fevers are coming down a bit, the hospitalist basically told us that he is stuck here until the culture grows bacteria (1-3 days). If nothing grows, the infectious disease doc will called on to the case to tell us what could be growing without showing up. After he decides on a treatment plan, Dan can go home. He'll likely be on antibiotics for quite a while, even at home. We're still not sure on whether it will be oral or IV antibiotics. Dan is certainly hoping for oral meds so he won't need another PICC line.

Overall plan: wait, wait and wait some more. The hospitalist wasn't very keen on setting any clear goals at this point, so we're hoping tomorrow is better.

Thankfully, my boss is letting me take leave of absence days while Dan is here in the hospital. That takes a lot of stress off of us, as I can be here to help him out and talk to the doctors.

We're trying to take it a day at a time, enjoying spending time together while we can. Dan is studying for his final, which he'll have to take late. Also, Dan is on the floor I work on, so everyone is being great.

Wait, wait, wait.

Prayer Requests:
* Knowledge and wisdom for the docs
* Effective antibiotics that Dan can take orally
* A discharge sooner than we are expecting
* Cooperative and helpful communication with doctors
* NO MORE FEVERS!
* Speedy and conclusive results
* Time for us to show God's love and grace through how we handle this situation