Monday, October 8, 2012
Dillon is still improving. His color is almost back to normal and the swelling/ fluid retention has improved greatly as well. He has lost almost 7 pounds of fluid over the past week. At his peek of yellowness (is that a word??) his bilirubin was 15 and now it is 5 with normal being between 0.2 -1.2. He still as fevers up to 102 routinely. The source has not been identified yet but aggressive treatment with 3 different antibiotics, an antiviral, and 2 antifungals are supposed to be helping. His abscess is beginning to heal, his mouth and throat are almost completely better, the fever is a bit more controlled now as it was at 105 for a few days, and his labs show that his body is recovering from the assault on the liver and kidneys. They have cultured many bodily fluids....you name it, they have tested it....and nothing is growing out any bacteria.
Tomorrow I will begin discussing the lab values that the doctors watch that show his new immune system/bone marrow is beginning to function.....we are not quite there yet but it is definitely on the horizon.
Good to hear the improvement. I'd sure be ever so curious as to the source of this infection though. Probably never know for sure but it is disconcerting never the less. It will be a huge relief I'm sure when the bone marrow begins to function. As always love and prayers for all. Aunt Marilyn
ReplyDeleteMarylin, the docs explained that sometimes there is in fact no infection....just lots of inflammation from all the trauma the body is going thru and has had to endure....however, their best guess as the source is the huge abscess in Dillon's backside, which is very common among transplant patients because of the bacteria and natural flora in that part of the body. Apparently it is quite common for infection to never be identified....which is a shock to me...I mean with all the technology today it seems crazy that this sort of thing can still be "hiding".
DeleteAbscess makes sense as the source I guess. I'm with Stacy in the fact that the body is an amazingly fine tuned machine that knows how to recover from the onslaught of everything he's been through.
DeleteIt's amazing what a fine machine the body is....and getting out of sync makes such a mess! I'm so glad that D is fighting so hard! You are both super stars!! Hugs to Luca for being such an outstanding brother!!! (Oh, to Sean too! What a super dad to keep Luca up and going!)
ReplyDeleteYou are so right Stacy.....it is truly miraculous the things the human body can endure and the restore. I am amazed every day!!
DeleteSo, so glad to hear Dillon is improving. We are cheering for all of you. Lots of love, light and energy. Molly, Woody, Holden & Maisy <3
ReplyDeleteThat is all good news Shari, I am glad Dillon is making this turn, we keep praying and thnking positive thoughts. We love you.
ReplyDeleteTodd and Miel