No Fever!

We've made it 24 hours now with no fever spikes, and Noah's latest blood cultures are still negative! All good news! However, Noah seems to have picked up something new here. Lots of coughing and wheezing today, and needing ventolin masks every couple of hours. The chest xray from today didn't show any new change from his last one, so likely a virus. Between that and the hours on the Ampho (which today gave him a crazy rash), he doesn't get much happy time. He did make it to music time on the ward though, which is always a highlight for him!

The bone scan results are back, and it looks like osteomyelitis again. The infection has seeded in 2 places: one of Noah's lower ribs, and his T10 vertebrae. This doesn't really change to much as far as treatment, except perhaps how long ID decides we need to treat for. Noah's platelets have draopped again today and he's been having nosebleeds. His hemoglobin is also back on its way down. But for now, we are still holding off on more transfusions. Hopefully his body with begin to rebuild once this Ampho really starts taking effect. His kidneys are looking ok, and we are doing what we can do with extra fluids and sodium to protect them. ID is still quite concerned with the combination of drugs he is on, but they are undecided about how many more days of Ampho B we will do.

We've also come up with a new plan regarding Noah's line care. He now has his own protocol written up in his chart. No more alcohol swabs, but rather chlorhexidine on his line. An each time his line is accessed at all, the nurses have to glove, gown and mask, and use sterile technique. It may seem a bit extreme and it makes a whole lot more work, but we are hoping to prevent any new hospital bugs from making their home in Noah's line.