Abby's Journey Archive

This morning the PICU intensivist came in to tell me that most of the blood work came back and revealed that she has a "gram negative rod" infection in her catheter. Now, I'm not a pathologist, so I'm not sure what all that means, but he did say that they were still waiting for a couple more cultures to come back so they could pin down where the infection came from (urinary tract, or the catheter itself).

Because late last night the first blood culture had yielded some results they had already started IV antibiotics. If she continues to tolerate them well there is a chance we can beat this infection without needing the catheter removed.

But what about radiation therapy? The intensivist tells us that the infection is too serious to start the therapy tomorrow, and in fact she may be in the hospital at least 3-5 more days. We're worried about tumor progression since the new nodule had grown so much before we got to the second surgery. Please pray that again we will have wisdom about her care, that we would be starting radiation at exactly the right time, and that we can cure the infection without needing to remove the catheter.

Abby was admitted to ICU at about 4:00 this afternoon after a CT scan and some bloodwork. Her white blood cell count was high indicating she was fighting off some sort of infection. Right after we got settled in our room, they sent her up for another CT scan, this time with contrast.

The CT scans were not alarming, praise God. There was some concern about meningitis and talk of another spinal tap to see if that was the case. However, when Dr. Moss (Dr. Shafron's partner who is on call this weekend) saw the CT scans and the ICU intensivist examined Abby, they thought that meningitis was unlikely. The ER doctor and the ICU intensivist also examined Abby's throat and neither saw any inflamation of her tonsils.

A urine sample was collected in the ER and the analysis from that seemed to indicate a problem. They decided to collect a sterile sample with a catheter (which Abby did NOT appreciate) to get an accurate analysis. We are waiting for the results of that sample.

Abby is settled in with Daddy in her new room (we've now had ICU rooms 9, 7 and currently 5...nice pattern for working on a math lesson with Abby!). Our prayer is that they will be able to isolate the source of her infection and be able to get her going on the right antibiotic asap. She REALLY wants to at least attend the performance of Holy Moses tomorrow night. She has had such a fun time at choir camp and she has worked so hard learning the songs and the moves, so we are praying she'll at least be able to watch the performance in person.

As always, thanks for your prayers!