Baby Steps

So yesterday I found out that Annie's gamma globulin is not just a one-time dose treatment--thank goodness.  But they only ordered one dose to begin with since they weren't sure how she would tolerate it.  But since she tolerated it well, they plan to continue that therapy.  Each dose is so incredibly expensive that they haven't planned out a regimen, but will continue to assess her each day and take one day at a time.  By 3:00pm yesterday, Annie had gone an amazing 6 hours without a poopy diaper.  It was around this time that I was meeting with the infectious diseases team, so they felt like maybe there had been a small improvement from her first dose of gamma globulin on Wednesday, so they decided to not give her any more yesterday.  But we all know how tricky Annie can be... she had a huge blow out shortly after the infectious diseases team left!  We'll consult with them again this afternoon, but most likely, Annie will get another gamma globulin dose today.

This morning at 3:00am, Annie's IV went bad, so they struggled again to get another IV in--this time in her right foot.  Her right hand and arm are now completely swollen where her IV infiltrated and is rather tender.  This new IV in her foot is her sixth IV since she was admitted to the hospital 12 days ago, and is her fifth IV since she started TPN about six days ago.  We are still waiting for Annie to get her PICC line.  She has to be fever free for 48 hours before she can get a PICC.  As of this morning, her temp has been equal to or less than 100.4 for 48 hours now, but since 100.4 is borderline, they're having to consult with the PICC team and anesthesiology to see if they will qualify her with those temps.  So there is a teeny tiny chance that Annie might get her PICC this afternoon, but it's more likely that it won't be until Monday, assuming she can keep her temps down over the weekend.  They are fairly confident that her temps are coming from her bowel inflammation since her blood cultures and urine cultures keep coming back negative, but having a fever would still pose a risk with the PICC. So as usual, we'll wait and see.