PICU again!

John was admitted to University Columbia on Tuesday evening for a fever. 38.4 at home and then 38.9 by the time that we made it to the ER. Of course it is yet another line infection - this time sepsis. During Tuesday night he went from 38.9 to 34.1 and exhibited other shock symptoms like extremely low blood pressure. Very scary but he remained on the floor. Wednesday morning he was looking better and continued to improve slowly through the day but by Wednesday afternoon it was decided that he should be moved to the PICU for closer observation. A move that we were happy to see.

The PICU here has some definite advantages over the PICU in St. Louis, one of them being that we can use cell phones in the room, bring food into the room and one of us can sleep in the room. Which worked out well being as John slept half the night with me. His stomach is very very gassy and he is upset by it. It’s the first time that I’ve ever seen a farrell valve pouched out. This morning he looks really puffy to me. I’m waiting for when he is awake and in a good mood to see if that is just me, or if he really looks puffy. Of course they gave him a little lasix last night and now are chasing fluids, but that is just par for the course.

St. Louis. Well they want him stable and there now. Of course. Mark called yesterday to see if he could talk to Dr. Hanna himself, of course not. Sandy called back and said that they want him stable and moved. The doctor here said that if they want him and she thinks that he is ready to travel that is fine but they will fly him. For that I was glad. At this point I don’t know. His specialists are in St. Louis but the docs and the care that he is receiving here has been nothing short of excellent so we are willing to let them work it out amongst themselves. I always feel guilty that we leave here and go there - not that we are really doing something wrong, but these are excellent docs too. I just never want them to think that we leave because we think that there is something wrong with them. It’s just that well even if it wasn’t for the docs St. Louis has Sharon, John’s favorite nurses and PCA’s and such. Of course we had Ashley first thing here, we always have her here and we like her very much. I don’t know I always feel torn because both hospitals are so good and maybe I should just focus on how blessed we are to have two such good places for John to be.

This sepsis looks like it might not get as scary as the last one. Of course that didn’t stop mom from being upset because in her opinion we should have had surgery done and now. I don’t think she understands that at this point, at least at the last time that we visited this discussion the risks of surgery outweighed the possible benefits especially with John showing adaptability like he was. I figure that once we get to St. Louis we will be there for the long haul as they will want to work on feeding stuff again. That’s fine, this time we prepared there is at least a months worth of stuff packed in the Jeep ready to go today if need be. Maybe that will be the ticket to keep us here for a few more days and then home. Doubt it!

The adoption was finalized on Monday but of course we don’t have the paperwork to prove it so John is still Craft on everything. If we do our normal month in the hospital though we will get to change all that probably first of next week. Jen sent flowers and balloons, she is wonderful. Everyone sent their congrats via email and it is so wonderful to have it all done.