Day 79 With C-diff. Day 4 in the Hospital

We were encouraged yesterday afternoon that Annie seemed to be tolerating her half-strength feedings at a rate of 40cc/hr and even later at 60cc/hr, but she vomited last night shortly after they increased her rate to 80cc/hr.  They decreased the rate back down to 60cc/hr for her overnight feedings and seemed to do ok until she vomited again this morning.  So feeds are on hold until noon, at which point we'll try a full-strength feed at a rate of 40cc/hr.  They plan to give her a dose of Zofran to help with the vomiting, so we'll see how it goes later today.

Annie got a sponge bath this morning after she threw up, and even got her hair washed.  They weighed her and she's now up to 50 lbs, but we know that's all water weight, especially since she continues to have moderate swelling.  They also removed her catheter since it's putting her at a higher risk of developing a UTI.  Her urine continues to be amber colored, but they say it will just take some time to become more clear.  

Her chest x-ray from yesterday was clear and her kidney functions are still looking normal from her blood work.  Her UA did show 6-8 white blood cells so they'll continue to monitor for a UTI and watch her urine culture.  Putting Annie on antibiotics for a UTI would dramatically affect her c-diff treatment, so hopefully nothing develops.  If so, they would consider doing an antibiotic bladder wash.

They are continuing to take blood every 12-24 hours and so far her labs are all normal.  We still are waiting to hear about her stool sample test results, particularly her calprotectin level showing her amount of colon inflammation. She is still having about 6 episodes of watery diarrhea a day.  Infectious diseases has said that they don't expect to see an improvement in her diarrhea until she's been off her cipro for 3-4 days.  Yesterday was her first day off cipro, so no one seems concerned that she still has bad diarrhea.  But hopefully by Saturday or Sunday we'll start to see fewer episodes of diarrhea.

(Don't let these pictures deceive you.  Annie isn't sitting around all day grinning at us!  But when she does start to smile, we definitely grab the camera quickly!)

  Yesterday afternoon, playing with her beads.

 Yesterday evening:

All clean after her sponge bath this morning: