Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Going Backwards

So earlier this week everyone had been thinking that we would be discharged either today or tomorrow, but unfortunately, that is not the case. Because he had finished his antibiotics and had a negative blood culture, Raul's PICC line was pulled on Monday. I expressed concerns about drawing blood in the future, but the doctors were pretty sure that they would not need anymore blood. Unfortunately, the next night Raul spiked another high fever, and today started having more diarrhea. The night team last night wanted to get two blood cultures and re-start him on IV antibiotics, which would mean putting in a regular IV. The resource nurses were called, and we were able to get one blood culture, but not the second or the IV. So today he was scheduled to get another PICC line places, and that happened this afternoon. Luckily he is doing better with anesthesia these days, and there were no problems, though they said they suctioned out thick secretions again (like after the g-tube). He is now getting his IV antibiotics again, and they drew labs and another culture. He had to be NPO all day waiting for the procedure, so tonight we restarted his g-tube feeds again. He still seems pretty uncomfortable with the feeds, but not in quite as much pain, so that's good. They are still being given over long periods of time, but I think we are going to work on shortening them soon now that he is tolerating them better. I am not sure how long they are going to give the antibiotics for, but we will definitely be here a while longer while they are being given.

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