We're back again with Brett to start hospitalization #6. This one isn't that much of a surprise to us. Over the past 5 days or so we have noticed Brett not feeling quite as well as he normally does. He was scheduled to do the infant PFTs (pulmonary function tests) today, which would mean general anesthesia. I emailed his doctor yesterday and let him know about Brett's subtle change in behavior, and how I wasn't sure what he would think when he saw Brett. That way, he had a heads up on the situation. When we got here, he already had Brett on the list for a bed, just in case he needed to be admitted. This was wise, because they did end up wanting Brett to stay. There is just no point in performing a test (pft) that is designed to provide us more information, but might set him back quite a bit if he is ill in some other way we're not sure about now. We are working on testing various immune function in Brett, and we already know he is compromised in that area. We postponed those tests to stay on the safe side.
Brett is on contact precautions until the results of his viral panels come back. At that point if they show no virus, we will be able to stop wearing the gloves and the gowns. Although I am wearing a mask in the photo, he's not actually on droplet precautions yet. These precautions are not for Brett's sake - they are supposed to help protect other people in the hospital from any virus Brett's body might be harboring. Mark and Gantt both have stuffy sinuses and runny noses, so there is a good possibility that Brett might have some of the same virus. They will be drawing blood to test whether he is still negative for that infection in his blood or not, and then they will decide whether he can keep his Broviac central line or not. We hope we will only be here for 48 hours for observation and testing. If all the tests come back great, it is possible he would do the infant PFTs on Friday.
