Hospitalization #12 - Day 8

Brett made it home today - got discharged about 4:00pm. Met Dad and brothers at Chili's for dinner and now home and trying to get settled.

We'll be giving IV antibiotics every 6 hours for 2 weeks.

Hospitalization #12 - Day 7

Hooray! Brett got a PICC line placed today that is big enough for home use! That coupled with several consecutive days of negative blood cultures means that he will most likely be able to come home this week!!

Right now we are hoping for Thursday, the day after tomorrow.There are always certain variables that could change things, of course, and for this visit, one of those variables happens to actually be the weather! We've had ice this week, and that shuts down almost everything around here since it's so dangerous to drive on ice. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the rest of the week and home health will be able to deliver his medications, etc.

We closed the business today because of the treacherous driving conditions as well as lack of customers! Yesterday Mark had a 3-hour early release at school, and he was completely out today. Tomorrow is a 2-hour delay. Maybe the rest of the week will even out weather-wise and all will soon be back to normal.

2nd Grade Christmas Program

In December, Mark had his 2nd Grade Christmas Program at NRCA. Rob and I were both able to attend, and Mark did a great job. Here he is pointing to his name on the board as a soloist. I've also posted a video!

Mark proudly pointing to his name

Close up

On Stage

Mark had to audition for this part, and we are so proud of him! It may be difficult to hear/understand, but he sings, "He set Daniel free from the lions in that cage - Nothing is impossible with God." 

Hospitalization #12 - Day 6

Gantt visited Brett at the hospital today - and they got to go to the playroom together!

As for Brett, port was not only infected with staph, but also 2 other gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, he's now on 3 different antibiotics I think to cover all those. It surprised everyone that he was growing something other than staph. He is going to have to have some IV antibiotics for 11-14 more days, and we are still using a peripheral IV in his hand. His pulmonologists don't really want him to have another central line (like a port or broviac) because it seems every time it gets infected. However, as I have said before, you can't go home on a peripheral IV, and it has failed every day and he has to get a new one.

After much deliberation between us (Rob and I) and all the "teams" involved (pulmonary, infectious disease, surgery, immunology), we have come to the conclusion to try for a PICC line tomorrow. In the best case, they can get a PICC line big enough to go home on when the time comes. If not, the hope is that we can at least get one to use instead of the peripheral IV while he's in the hospital. The advantage to the PICC versus the port-a-cath or Broviac is that once we're done with IV therapy, the PICC can be pulled out by a nurse - it doesn't have to be surgically removed. We can pull it out when we're done and he won't have any central line at that point to risk getting infected. This will give his body a little break. Hopefully this makes sense. I'm really tired.

Gantt walking down the ramp with Daddy watching him

Hospitalization #12 - Day 5

Nothing new today either.  We got all dressed and ready for the Chiefs game today.  Unfortunately, the Chiefs didn't do the same.  Lost 30-7.  UGH!!

So he got a bath and donned his Grave Digger shirt and we toured the hospital.  The video is of us at Starbucks this morning.  The photos are from this evening.  Lots of fun together this weekend!!