Making Progress

Nathan made progress today. He is now out of the Pediatric ICU and is in a regular room!!

He also got another IV put in. It's called a picc line and it goes through the arm with a tube that winds through his vein all the way to the heart. This is something that he could go home with so that he can receive his antibiotics straight into the blood without having to go through the stomach with an oral medication. Apparently, it's somewhat difficult for antibiotics to break through the blood/brain barrier so this removes an extra step in the process making it more ideal. Once we are able to go home, there will be someone who comes to the house and teaches us how to administer his medicine. They will also change his dressing once a week and are able to draw blood through this line.

It appears that there was only one type of bacteria in his brain so the doctor's are going to eliminiate two of the four antibiotics that they were giving him. They are hoping to go down to one soon but we're thankful that he won't need as much as he's been getting.

Nathan still favors the left side of his body. His right side, especially his arm, can move but he keeps it bent and close to his chest most of the time. He answers our questions with head shakes and says a few words. He wasn't very verbal before this though so doctor's can't gather much from his speech. We are praying that he regains all control of his body and that this abscess hasn't done any damage to his brain.

The neurologist plans on having another CT scan done in a week but apparently everything is going the way he expected. In this regard we are praying that the abscess is responding to the antibiotics and that it will not return. We were told that this is a possibility.

We hope that Nathan continues to improve and that it will not take too long to eliminate this infection. The doctor's say that every case is different but at the very minimum he would be on antibiotic therapy for 6 weeks (and that is if his abscess were about half the size that it was). If we add that to the fact that he has to be infection free for 6-8 weeks before heart surgery, we are looking pretty far down the road in planning that repair. So far, Nathan's heart is stable which is great. But we just want to get this little guy on the mend!

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. I hope to have more good news tomorrow!