More of the Same

Not much new today to report. They were able to wean off the nitric oxide last night, but because of that had to increase his FiO2 to 75%. According to the doctors, they were happy to at least be able to get the nitric oxide off because that can be more difficult to wean off than Dilaudid. So we will count that as a positive thing for the day, even though they had to go up on the FiO2 to come off of it. Dad is still spiking super high fevers every night (104.9 was last night), and they are unsure of the source as all of his cultures have come back negative. At this point, they are considering that perhaps it is a side effect of some of the antibiotics he has been getting, so they are going to try stopping antibiotics for a few days and see if that helps the fevers. When Mike and I left tonight he was up to 103.6 again after remaining afebrile for most of the day. Unfortunately, he also had some blood in his stomach today so they are not able to give him ibuprofen to help with the fevers anymore. All day today his blood pressure was quite low and dependent on the medication to increase it; however, tonight he became quite agitated after being laid flat for a CT scan and became more hypertensive, so they stopped the pressor and restarted the propofol to help with the agitation/sedation. At this point, we know he gives his night nurses a run for their money, and they are used to it as well! His nurse tonight was going to give him a bath in rubbing alcohol and ice water- a very old school technique for lowering fevers. Hopefully it works. I was lucky enough to have one of my former DePaul teachers come to visit with me for a good part of the day, which was very nice. Andrew is also back in town, and it is great to have him here. I know Dad appreciates that as well! Our cousin John brought a delicious homemade meal to the hospital, which was so wonderful. I, for one, am growing very tired of eating out all the time! Dad's oncologist will stop by to see him tomorrow- he is happy that he is holding his own, but concerned that he is not getting better faster, which is the general consensus among the other doctors as well. They feel if they can find a way to control these fevers, it will help his oxygenation. Please continue to keep us in your thought and prayers. We hope that Dad will be back to write on the blog soon, but until then, I will continue to keep updating.