Slow Progress

I think Ammon is making some slow progress. There are several problems we are working on, but the main culpret was the infection in his bladder/kidneys. It was a bad one and it caused problems with his bowels, effectively shutting everything down. For the past two days they have been working to get his bowels totally cleaned out (in a milder manner than if he was going in for a colonoscopy). They have been draining his g-tube and he has been unable to eat any regular food. Today they clamped the g-tube to see if he would produce too much gas again. So far he seems to be fairly comfortable with his tummy.

Our biggest worry right now is his inability to cough the rattles out. The mucus or whatever it is that is causing the mucus is coming from the healing process in the trachea. Because of the surgery, they will not allow him to be deep suctioned to get it all out. He is able to be suctioned through his nose just a short distance into the top of the throat and they are doing compressions on his back and chest to keep things broken up in the lung area. If we can get through this little process, we will be making great progress. He had a lung x-ray this afternoon to see how his lungs look. Pneumonia would be a huge problem for him if he got it.

He has also broken out into a nasty rash all over his chest, face, shoulders and back. They don't know what is causing this because the antibiotic he is getting for the UTI is one he's had many times and has never had a reaction to. They are treating that with Calamine lotion just to keep him comfortable and a Bacritiban to help heal the puzzling sore on his ear.

Yesterday we took him down and let him have a real bath. We put him on a kind of bed/sling and it lowers him down into the water. He kept moving the water with his arms said, "This is the best thing that's happened to me." He'll get another bath tomorrow after his bowels are done cleaning out.

I suspect, if we can avoid pneumonia, that we will be here until Wednesday. I hope that isn't an optimistic goal but a realistic one. We definitely don't want to take him home until he is good and well. His voice is very weak and he doesn't have much energy but he is a lot more interactive and can focus on our eyes better.

Ammon and I watched the BYU/Oklahoma football game last night. He wasn't doing much yelling and I was trying to hold it inside in deference to other patients in this hospital, but I sure was jumping up and down. I had my BYU shirt on and after the game was over, I cruised all over the hospital proudly wearing this shirt. What an awesome game and fun time I had watching it! Ammon wasn't quite as enthusiastic as I was, but he was happy about it.