Friday, October 1, 2010

Hello Dear Ones --

A beautiful sunny fall day here. Absolutely stuuning.

I have not been keeping you all posted and I am sorry. It has been a tough week but at this moment I am feeling optimistic.

Craig came home from the hospital on Tuesday. They ended up growing E. Coli on his blood cultures. He got a new IV line put in his chest on Monday. He is getting IV antibiotics at home for the next 2 weeks. He responded really well to a combination of IV diuretics and albumin in the hospital and got rid of 20 pounds of fluid! This is good because his legs and arms are not nearly as puffy any more. However he now looks quite thin and is down about 50 pounds from his baseline weight, which I know is disturbing to him.

This past Wednesday was a down day. Craig felt poorly -- no appetitie, nausea, still some chills and low grade fever. I was thinking we might have to take him back to the hospital. The visiting nurse came and was kind of a disaster -- spilled blood on the carpet, didn't know how to mix up the IV antibiotic, couldn't figure out the flow rate (Craig and I calculated it and we're a couple of derms who never use IVs -- kids, study your algebra). That added to the stress of the day.

However, Craig woke up Thursday morning feeling better and temp down and appetite a little better. I went off to work and brother Bob stayed with Craig -- Bob calls himself "part of the team" -- for me, he has been the rescue team this week. With Bob's help, Craig ate a little better and got up and about a bit more.

Then the really good news -- labs from Wednesday and Thursday showing albumin increasing! Up to 1.8 on Wenesday and 2.1 on Thursday. Dr. O'Neill thinks this is a real improvement because the albumin Craig got in the hospital would not hang around this long. Dr. told Craig his job now is to build up his muscle and stamina by working out at least twice a day. So that is all very encouraging. Hooray!

Love, Sharon