Another Day, Another plan

It was another up & down night in the hospital. This time it was up and down fevers all night. The pic line cultures came back positive for Staff, so the culprit for the fevers has been found. In the middle of the night new pic lines were ordered and at 2:30am the team was assembled to insert new pic lines into her right arm. This time a new location was picked and the lines went right in. So after all the excitement was over and the X-Ray came in and verified the pic lines were in correctly on the first pass.

Dr Ganguly came in happy that the staff was identified, noting that these things just happen. Not the cause of anything that anyone does, it just happens. So the treatment is a daily antibiotic drip. The good news was a going back to the original plan and going home on Monday if the fevers disappeared. But, he was quick to note that she was very susceptible to infections and it may happen again and she would be back at the hospital.
The fevers did not go away and the day was spent watching fevers get up to 100.5 degrees, then some Tylenol and then the fever would drop.

Food is still slow going down and the diet is mostly jello and orange flavored ice. But the esophagus is healing well and even though pills go down slowly, they go down without damage. j Just when all the excitement had settled down the Dr ordered Lasix to drain the fluid build up. Being in the hospital with constant fluids coming in the IVs' can create fluid build up in the chest. So the Lasix was ordered to keep the fluids buildup down, even though the lungs still sound clear.

So with the fevers it is unlikely Cathi will get home on Monday, but it is encouraging to know that the infection has been identified and the cause of the fevers is being treated.