Still in the Hospital

Last week after Caeden's initial fever he started to get better and was doing really well. The blood cultures that they drew on Monday 02/15 took until Friday 02/19 to show a bacteria called micrococcus growing. There was also another type of bacteria that grew from that culture but we do not know the name of that bacteria. Therefore, it confirmed that Caeden had a central line infection. The Doctors put him on an antibiotic called vancomycin to get rid of the infection. He was also put on another antiobiotic call cephalexin. We were going to be released from the hospital Friday morning (02/26) because then he would have finished a full 10 day treatment of antibiotics.

Caeden had a visit from his grandparents on Thursday (02/25) evening and was doing good until right before the grandparents left. He seemed warm so we checked his temperature and he had a fever. We informed the nurses and then put a cold cloth on his forehead to see if that would help reduce his fever. Caeden was given Tylenol around 8 pm to help with the fever but that didn't help at all. He was very fussy and then we noticed that he started to shake and quiver so we notified the nurse. The nurse was calm but seemed concerned when we told her that so she left the room to call the pediatrician that was on call. The pediatrician showed up very soon after that to check him out. Caeden's heart rate was elevated and was in the 220's where the normal range should be about 140. His blood pressure was high and also his pulse rate. The pediatrician ordered the nurse to bring in a couple bags of fluid to give him right away. Then the pediatrician walked out without saying anything. The nurse informed us that they called the rapid response team from the PICU(Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). In a matter of about 5 minutes we had 9 people in our room. It consisted of nurses, charge nurses, and the attending physician and resident physician.

Denae and I realized how serious this was and how sick Caeden was. Caeden's temperature was over 103 degrees and he had a look that they call modeled. This means that his color has changed and that his veins are very evident. They gave Caeden 80 cc of fluid directly into his broviac thru an enormous syringe. The attending physician said if his condition didn't improve very quickly then they were going to move us down to the intensive care unit. They gave Caeden more Tylenol as well and also put him on a different antibiotic. The concern was that he had a yeast/fungus infection. They drew another blood culture as well. His condition improved but it took awhile for his fever to break. This was one of the scariest things that Denae and I have ever been through.

Thankfully, Caeden has been doing well since then and hasn't had another fever. He has slowly been getting back to his normal eating consumption. The blood cultures so far have come out negative. The Doctor's are considering removing his central line due to the infections he has gotten but are weighing the pros and cons of this. If the culture ends up showing a yeast/fungus infection then they will definately remove his central line because it is too dangerous to leave it in.