Day 8

Here's the good news for today:

• Samuel is not any worse.
• He does not have diffuse alveolar disease. Thank you, Lord!
• A change in the pain management plan is allowing him to be more comfortable.
• His transplanted kidney is holding steady - no dialysis since last Sunday.

Here's the bad news:

• Samuel is not any better.
• The doctors still don't know what he has.
• He is requiring extra pain medication to be comfortable.
• His transplanted kidney is not working as well as it needs to.

Dr. Guillot's plan for the next 2 days includes:

• Keep his blood pressure under control.
• Keep him as pain-free as possible.
• Keep his fevers from spiking.
• Continue to wait for cultures to grow from yesterday's bronchoscopy.
• Continue to monitor his liver function.
• Continue to monitor his immune suppression. Make adjustments as necessary.
• Run additional urine and stool tests.
• Decrease the amount of Nephro (the nutrition he receives through his feeding tube) in hopes his severe diarrhea will diminish.
• Add 2 more antibiotics to the regime. Rats! Samuel is now on 8 different antimicrobial drugs.
• Add probiotics to his Nephro. Yeah!!
• Change some PO (by mouth) meds to IV in hopes of better absorption.
• Have PET scan done on Monday.
• Start working on possible drug fever angle, if no improvements or new information from cultures by January 1st.

So....that's where we are for today. I am grateful for the specific list of plans that Dr. Guillot shared with me this morning. Knowing the plan makes the waiting a little easier. We are all impatient for some kind of resolution.