Trying to Fatten Up

Yet again, Annie's TPN has come in with even more calories than her last bag!  Today's order now has over 1200 calories in it (not to mention however many calories are in the separate bag of lipids!)  Her normal diet at home only has 1000 calories total in 24 hours, so maybe she'll start catching up to her normal weight again soon! 

A new ID doctor is on rounds now this week since it's Monday again.  The ID doctors all consult together so she's been aware of Annie all along, but today was our first day to meet her.  She said the plan is to continue to give the gamma globulin as needed for at least this whole week.  They don't plan to change anything with her current treatment for at least a week so they can make sure they give this treatment plenty of time to work before starting something new so they can know what to attribute any improvement to.  They are encouraged by the very small improvement that seems to be made on the gamma globulin so far.  It's hard for me to really see that any improvement has been made, but I guess when you look at Annie's chart from the past 15 days in the hospital, the data must show something at least a little encouraging.

After about 10 days of gamma globulin therapy, if there is still no real improvement, they will consider yet another antibiotic and/or fecal transplant.  We did learn today that even once the diarrhea caused by the c-diff eventually stops and we start feeding Annie again, we should expect another several weeks of diarrhea until her intestines can get adjusted to absorbing food again.  So again, we are reminded that this battle is far from over, but we are encouraged that we are moving in the right direction.

Today was the hospital's Halloween celebration with trick-or-treating in the lobby for patients.  But with Annie in isolation, of course she couldn't go.  However, several volunteers stopped by patient rooms today to do "reverse" trick-or-treating.  They brought Annie a bag of Halloween toys and other fun stuff.  She really liked a ghost slinky they gave her!  It was a good thing she decided to finally wake up this morning at 11:45 to see them all visit!  I only wish I could have gotten 15 hours of sleep last night as well!