Not much to report tonight. Brandon’s numbers remain about the same. His white blood cell count is lower than when he first was admitted to the hospital (which is a good thing), but his O2 is still a bit dodgy. He is resting comfortably, but he is still on the ventilator. Dr. Makhoul seemed a bit doubtful that Brandon would be off the vent over the weekend, but maybe at the beginning of next week, depending upon how he does over the weekend. I will be back at the hospital on Saturday, so I will post more then.
Posts tagged ‘Brandon Forbis’
Wanted to take a minute and introduce you to our team:
*Dr. Yves Makhoul specializes in Pulmonology/Critical Care. He completed a 3-year Internal Medicine residency at Staten Island University Hospital (NY), a 1-year Critical Care Medicine fellowship at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center (NY), and a 2-year Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care fellowship at NYU-Langone Medical Center (NY).
*Dr. Ahsan Usman is certified in Internal Medicine, with a specialty in Nephrology. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Health System (OH), and a residency in Internal Medicine at USC, Los Angeles. He completed a Nephrology fellowship at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
These guys are the greatest!
It’s a great day day on 7! Good news all around! Brandon’s chest x-ray looks better, and his white count is down from yesterday, but his O2 in the last ABG is a little lower. Dr. Makhoul is not sure what to make of that, but seems generally pleased with the progress we are making. Brandon was able to communicate with us a bit more this morning. He would love to hear from the outside world, so if you want to post any comments or messages or send get well cards to either house, they will be very welcome.
Dr. Makhoul was up earlier. Still no positive results from any of Brandon’s tests, so they still are not certain of the cause behind all of this, but they are going to try treating with steroids. They had to rule out some of the bacterial, fungal and viral causes before they could do this, as the steroid could, in some cases, make things worse rather than better, but at this point, the steroids will either help or do nothing. So the waiting game continues. I am going to head home for the day, but will post again if we hear anything from the hospital. Look for more in-depth reporting in tomorrow’s issue . .
Well, the plot thickens. Dr. Makhoul was in a little while ago and had been in touch with Pathology about some of Brandon’s test results. So far, all the tests for all the common things have come back negative, so they are starting to dig a little deeper and check for some more exotic causes to this. So, as of right now, mycoplasma pneumonia may be out, since they have not been able to find any bacteria in any of the samples they took yesterday. That leaves ARDS of unknown origin, but they are not giving up on finding the culprit. Otherwise, things are staying remarkably the same. As we get more info, I will continue to post. Keep the prayers coming . . .