Monday, March 19

Chris came home from the hospital on Friday night.  The cultures they did on his urine came back on Friday morning showing a urinary tract infection so they sent him home with IV antibiotic - Vancomycin every 12 hours - for 2 weeks.  I know that a uti in males can make them pretty sick and can affect their mental status.  Chris has been weak and has trouble verbalizing what he wants to say.  I'm praying that this is related specifically to the UTI and will resolve rather than being a setback related to the cancer.
Patty and Ted are coming down on Tuesday to stay for a couple of days in order to give me a little break.  I'll be going out to the desert to recharge a little.  I'm so grateful that they can come down to give me some time away.  I just have to make sure that everyone is ok with starting the infusion and that they know what to watch for with possible kidney failure which is a side effect of Vancomycin and what he had last week in the hospital...don't want a repeat of that!
Pray with me that he starts responding to the medication and his mental status clears up quickly.
Love to all.  CJSRJ

thursday march 15

thursday evening at the hospital.  chris has just been taken down for a renal ultrasound.  lab results earlier today show that kidney function is better but not great.  still with fever tho not as high.  wll plan to get a chest/abd/pelvic ct scan tomorrow to see if thereis apocket of infection somewhere that is causing the fever.  so thats the story for today.  As always thank you for the prayers, we do so appreciate them.  will update tomorrow or when we find out something.  love  cjsrj

Wednesday, March 14, 9pm

Want to let you know the status this evening.  The attending doctor today ordered an abdominal ultrasound to see if there were any clues to the ongoing fever issue.  The ultrasound came back normal.  Chris remains on IV fluids to rehydrate and they will check his kidney and liver function again in the morning.  If the fluids resolve the hydration, kidney and liver issues but the fever remains, he will plan to do an upper body CT scan with contrast to rule out anything there that might be causing the fever including kidney stones and gall bladder problems.  So basically we are just waiting and exploring right now.  Chris slept most of the day today.  He still is "off" mentally in that he isn't always sure where he is, or what the date is (but sometimes he knows), and he is mixing reality with fantasy of some kind made up in his head.  I'm hoping that by getting his fluids back in line and the fever under control he will clear up mentally as well.
We left him at the hospital tonight and will go back in the morning.  He is able to get to the restroom with assistance in walking him there so we do not have the issues we had during the last hospitalization where we had to have someone there all night to keep him from pulling out the i.v. and trying to get up to go to the restroom.  Check back tomorrow for an update.  thank you for the extra thoughts and prayers being said for us during this time.  We love you.  CJSRJ