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 . .
Posts tagged ‘Children’
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 . . .
Breaking news! Brandon “woke up” enough to complain about being in CCU! He scribbled a note that looks something like “worst i can imagine”. Staff has him in restraints so that he doesn’t wake up & try to pull out the vent tube, and he has been very restless in the past hour, struggling against the restraints, so they are going to up his sedation just a bit to keep him comfortable and not panicky about what is going on. Dr. Makhoul said that the x-ray from this morning does not show any real improvement from yesterday, but it is not looking any worse, so Brandon is holding his own. Hopefully we will start getting some test results in the next few hours and will know more then. Stay tuned . . .
Good morning! Brandon peeked out of the anesthesia just a bit last night and again this morning. Don’t really know how aware he is of what is going on, but it is a good sign. We should be getting some results today from the test that were run yesterday during the bronchoscopy, and with more information we should be able to get a more directed treatment plan. The prayers are paying off! Keep up the good work! More later
Just got an update from Dr. Usman. Brandon is showing slight improvement – his heart rate has backed down to around 100 beats/minute and they have been able to reduce the concentration of oxygen through the ventilator from 100% to 80% (we normally breathe around 20% oxygen in the atmosphere). Below are a couple of links to sites giving some more information into what is going on. Slightly technical reading, but a pretty good overview. Please call, text, or message me if you have questions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoplasma_pneumoniae
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001164/ – National Library of Medicine article on Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrom