Posts tagged ‘Family’

We have a diagnosis! Confirmed by pathology! ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) with an underlying cause of Acute Eosinophilic Pneumonia. The treatment is steroids & antibiotics, but he will probably have to stay on the ventilator for another several days. If everything goes well, hopefully, he will be home in time for New Year’s. In the meantime, keep the prayers coming, and any messages of encouragement will be passed along ASAP.

A link to the Wikipedia page about EP is here.

For anyone who would like to share a message with Brandon, OSF has an e-card option on their website. Here is the link. Just remember when you are filling out the patient information, he is registered here at the hospital as Christopher B. Forbis, room 4121.

http://www.osfsaintfrancis.org/ecards/

Good morning! Brandon had a good night last night. He seemed to rest fairly well, and is a little more alert this morning. He seems to understand that he has been in the hospital a week, but I don’t know for sure if he is totally aware of what all is going on. He wants so desperately to communicate, and the staff wants him to rest, so we are at a bit of an impasse. When he is trying to communicate, he gets frustrated and then gets worked up, and when he does, he doesn’t get rest, so we are trying to limit the amount of time we are spending in his room to 5 minutes at a time. For the time being, we would still discourage visitors, but if you would like to post a message on his wall or post a comment on any of the blog entries, we will make sure that he sees them as soon as he is feeling a little better. Thank you for your continued prayers. They are working!

 

Brandon update – Brandon has been moved over to OSF St. Francis, and he seems to be settled in pretty good in the Medical ICU unit. The docs there are going to be making some changes to his treatment protocol, but basically they are going to continue some of the meds and add in some others to try and knock out the pneumonia. He was awake for a bit tonight and we were able to talk to him a little, but for the most part the staff wants him to try and rest as much as possible, so we are still discouraging visitors, but I promise that as soon as he is up to receiving company I will let everyone know! My immediate impression is that this move is a good one and there is no where to go from here but up! I will be heading back up to the hospital tomorrow morning and will post again once I get a feel for where Brandon is at after getting some rest tonight. Thank you again for all your support and prayers!

Change of plans . . . the docs at Pekin Hospital have decided that it is in Brandon’s best interest to move over to OSF St. Francis. It is the considered opinion that, as the docs at OSF have more experience with cases like this, Brandon will be better off there. OSF also has more resources as far as equipment, etc. for oxygenation than Pekin does, so moving him will also afford more opportunities for treatment. Finally, the docs at Pekin feel that moving Brandon now will be better than waiting until such time that moving him becomes a medical necessity.

Brandon already has a room reserved and OSF is prepared to receive him, so we are just waiting for Pekin to coordinate transport and then we will be road tripping. I will post more as soon as I know something.