Prayer Requests for Tuesday Night

• That TJ's fever would come down
• That his lungs claer up significantly or completely
• That his vitals remian in a good range -- without lots of meds

Thanks to all who are lifting TJ up! That is the only reason he is doing as well as is he is doing!

Evening Update; What is a Secondary Infection?

None of TJ's immediate family is down at the hospital at the moment (we have taken part of the evening off for some rest) so the details are a little scarcer than usual, but:

TJ's temp is back to 101, more or less straddling the line of "ok" and "getting dangerous," depending on where it goes, or doesn't.

His heart rate is in the low 90's, which is good. At a temp of 101 I (Jon, the non-med guy) would expect it to be in the 100's (I have spent enough time watching him to know how things normally go.)

His sats are down a little bit at 93, but good by ICU standards, and considering that the percent of oxygen he is getting through the vent is at 45, the sats are quite acceptable.

Finally, the sedation has been dropped a little bit and the nurse says he is tolerating that quite well.

To sum up, things are pretty good -- by the last week's standards -- not "healthy" standards (probably not even ICU standards)

Secondary Infection
I thought that it would be good to briefly explain what the secondary infection is, as I don't think it's been touched on much here.

A secondary infection is one that develops after the first one, generally in the hospital. E.g., MRSA would but TJ's primary infection, and, well, something else, is the secondary one.

We don't know for sure that he has one, but it is very reasonable to believe that he does. A bacterial infection results in a temperature (leading to a higher heart rate), and noticeable spike in the white blood cell count, all of which are occurring.

Thus, in the terms of one doctor, "it is a reasonable conclusion." More pointedly, something is causing the temperature and white blood cell count and the MRSA is being treated; the trends are reversing course after both going downward. We don't know for sure that TJ has a secondary infection because we can't find it (e.g., all the talk of looking for an abscess), but all the signs are there for it.


By 9:00pm CST the (Hopefully) Final Post for the Night with prayer requests will be up.


Finally, thanks for all your prayers! We have needed them, and continue to do so! They are both encouraging and efficacious!


Edit: One of my medical advisors does not believe that the white blood cell count is as significant as I seem to think it is. We'll call it a draw for tonight.

News and Miracles!!!

The family practice doctor just stuck his head in the room to let us know that the transcribed report from the TEE yesterday showed a normal mitral valve! Hallelujah!

Other news for this morning is also encouraging: his temperature is trending downward. White blood counts and kidney function are about the same as yesterday. They were able to decrease his levophed (used to keep his blood pressure up). His oxygen is at 50% and the pressure on the vent at 10 (same as it was), but his blood oxygen sats are holding at 97.

Quiet Night

TJ had a quiet night last night, with no major incidents. Mary Ann also was able to get a solid 6 hours of sleep, so praise God for good rest!

As doctors rounds get going and we learn more (we hope to learn more!) we'll keep you posted.

As always, continued prayers are our biggest request.