Continuation....

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Thanks Aunt Marilyn for the nudge.....I forgot to tell what the neck and armpit swelling and pain were attributed to....

So....you remember that Dillon has this HHV6 virus running rampant at the moment...well the medication for that is hard on the kidneys , so to help protect the kidneys a patient is given a large amount (400 ml) of IV fluid before the medication and after....well Mr. Pickle's kidneys are still recovering from the assault they had during the ICU episode, so they are not processing all of that extra fluid particularly well.  In addition, Dillon has not been getting up and moving that much (for obvious reasons) sooooooo.....the fluid is building up in his body and pooling in various areas based on how his body is positioned.  Basically, he is almost always laying on his right side so his face, eye, neck, shoulder, and armpit are accumulating "pools" of fluid and that is what the CT scan showed.

Of course there is yet ANOTHER medication to counteract this pooling, but it takes time for the body to respond to these buildup areas.  His new assignment is to sit upright in a chair twice a day for 15-20 minutes...and try to walk around a bit, even if only to the bathroom.  The amazing human body will know what to with that extra fluid once Dillon gives it that physical input of information including movement and gravity.

His cough and the abscess have much improved.  The abscess is in fact beginning to heal in a normal way with a bit of increased swelling and discharge because all those white cells have flocked there to do their first job...heal the infection.