November 6th, Isaac had his rod lengthening surgery. It was by far the quickest surgery, accompanied by the quickest recovery.
Fast forward to November 26th, and Isaac began to complain of stomach pains, and felt like he had a fever. He still had an appetite, so we dismissed it. On Thursday (Thanksgiving), he wasn't himself, still complaining of pain, which is unlike him. By dinnertime, he was trying to be himself, but just couldn't. So I took him to our house, to watch a Mickey Mouse, and get him some Tylenol. We went back over to Ryan's parent's house to pick up Ryan and Eli (they'd stayed there while Isaac and I went to our house). He was again, working really hard at being himself, and did a good job of it! Fooled me. After getting Eli & Ryan, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights, and both boys fell asleep. When we got home, Isaac woke up promptly, and when I had him up in his room, it was very apparent that something was very wrong. He was super hot to the touch, he looked scared, and just kept saying he didn't want to go to the doctor. When I asked him what hurt, he said (with huge teary eyes, "I think there is something broken inside." Break my heart. I asked him what he was scared of, and he said he was scared that he'd have to go to the doctor's and "go in the room where you don't come" - which is the OR. Ryan assured him we wouldn't have to go in there, and he was fine then with having to go to "the doctor." So Isaac and I headed out to CMH.
We got to the ER around 10:30 on Thursday night, and it was quickly determined that he had a high heart rate, respiratory rate and high fever. They drew blood to have cultured as well as sent urine off for culturing too.
Just about 24 hours after that, the blood was already growing bacteria, which usually the results aren't back for closer to 48 hours, which indicated that there was already a decent infection brewing. THey promptly started Isaac on 3 high powered IV antibiotics. There is no infection present in the bladder/kidneys/urine. So, all signs point to the incision from the most recent spine surgery to lengthen the rods. Perplexing so far as the sample that Dr. Schwend took from the surgical site, is not growing any bacteria at this point.
We know there is a chance we may never know the source of the infection. We'll likely have some further imaging done of the spine surgery area to see if they can see anything in there tomorrow (12/1).
So, where we are right now is that we DO know:
- the bacteria present in the blood is MSSA (the 'good' staph infection to have, if you're going to have one)
- this is the same strain of bacteria that was found during his previous infection that he had almost two years ago post surgery
- he is feeling better, but still feverish
We don't know more than that. We are meeting again tomorrow with our doctors to determine the course of action, assuming they've been able to determine for sure where the infection is brewing, and what the course of treatment should be.
Prayers/Thought requests:
1. That we caught this early enough that he won't have to go thru the multiple surgeries like he did when he was infected previously
2. Further - that the hardware (rods in his spine) are not compromised by this.
3. Speedy recovery
4. Peace and grace to understand that we are all doing the best we can with where we are and how we handle it.
5. Prayers for Eli. He's doing good, and has been up to visit Isaac several times. He is handling this the best he can.
Love & Hugs!
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