8-27-16

After Weds when we identified the bacteria causing Drew's infection, the next step was to make sure the stain Drew had was susceptible to the antibiotics we were giving him, which was pretty important since the infection had already gone 3 days untreated. Like I said, this bacteria is pretty antibiotic-resistant, and basically only those two antibiotics are on the short list of drugs we could treat him with. After a long day of waiting, the results came back from the lab--and it IS susceptible to both antibiotics! Phew. This means that it should be working to clear the infection in Drew's blood stream. Important news since Drew has zero white cells of his own to fight back with. Next concern was the line. After more then 24 hours on the antibiotics one side of his central line continued to grow bacteria in the cultures. With no improvement yesterday, both infectious disease and oncology teams recommended removing the line. So today the surgery team got on board, and even though his counts are low, they feel comfortable doing the surgery. At about noon, he went down for surgery. They won't be putting another one in just yet, since they want to make sure the infection is cleared up before they introduce another foreign body. Remember that it takes 48 of a culture being negative to be deemed "clear". This means without a line all those tubes going into him from that full IV pole will need to go in through a peripheral IV, and all the blood cultures will be taken with a poke. It is fine, and what needs to be done, but it spells a not-so-pleasant weekend for poor Drew, who already feels so terrible. With any luck, we'll have clean cultures by Tuesday, and they can put the new line in then. Please pray that that is exactly what happens! We'd continue the antibiotics for 14 days, and we are told that one of the drugs may actually slow Drew's engraftment, but it's a price we have to pay. Let's pray it doesn't take too much longer, so Drew can get some relief!

Drew's condition hasn't changed much. Mucositis is terrible, and he's pretty miserable. We've increased the rate of his IV pain med drip each day since we started it. We've turned off his feeds for the time being, and until he gets his line back in, also his IV nutrients (they say since we "beefed" him up so well while we were at home, he can be off feeds for a couple days). Josh's dad is with him from this afternoon on, and we'll visit if we need to, before I take over again on Tuesday. I'm excited to spend some extended time with Josh, but obviously it doesn't feel the same at home without Drew too. Keep praying for our family as we keep powering through this challenging time. Hopefully this is our last big hospitalization of this whole mess!

The encouraging messages and posts have really helped me through this difficult week, and no doubt all of your prayers. Help us see this through by continuing them!

~Heidi