Hospitalization #11 - Day 2

 We have bumblebees out our window this time!

Brett is feeling better today! The blood culture that was taken the first night he was here tested positive for staph - which means a blood infection. They took 2 more cultures - one from his port and another from his arm, just to be sure. It's easy for a blood culture to become contaminated, even with a flake of someone else's skin. But these are real, and last night they started him on IV Vancomycin to treat the infection. He's had 3 doses now and is starting to feel well enough to sit up and play a little bit and watch TV. His temperature is down to 99! And he's breathing much better since the fever went down.

Checking out the equipment

f you're wondering how Brett got something like this, here's the way one doctor described it to me. Although his port-a-cath is covered with skin, whenever it's accessed, there is a chance for it to get contaminated. If bacteria is allowed to enter the space there at the port, it can colonize and start an infection. Then if some of the bacteria break loose from that colony, they get swept through the bloodstream and you now have a blood infection. It's a risk of having permanent IV access.