Not Again!

Another bump in the road this week! The night before we came home from Utah Scott woke up in the night with chills and a fever. Fevers are a big deal when you are immunosuppressed. After talking with the transplant team we decided Scott should fly home. We bought him a ticket and away he went. I still had the 14 hour drive with 4 kids to do so Scott's parents helped out and did it with me(in 2 cars).
When Scott got home he felt pretty awful so he had my dad take him to the emergency. They did a whole bunch of tests but didn't find any source of infection - maybe just a virus. So Scott continued with the fever, chills, lethargy and no appetite for another day. Then I came home. The next morning, Wednesday, he had a clinic appointment with the tranplant team. That same morning he noticed swelling and redness around the site of his hernia repair that was done in May. When his doctor saw it he told Scott to go to emerg again. So away we went. We met with the general surgeons again and they waited for an ultrasound and bloodwork and every hour there was a new plan. Surgery, no surgery, infected fluid, not infected fluid...

Finally they drained the fluid with a needle, put Scott on IV antibiotics and sent us home. We did need to come back at midnight for another dose and back again in the morning for Infectious Disease doctors to decide the type and duration of antibiotic treatment. That was a long day!

But Scott continued to have a low-grade fever. The next night he had a high fever again. We also got a call from an ER doctor that his blood cultures from 2 days before had come back positive for a blood infection - staph again. Back to the ER again. Gratefully Scott was feeling better by the morning and was admitted to the hospital and feeling pretty good. The infected area was filling with fluid again so Scott had a CT scan and radiology drained it again and left a drain in this time.

Now we wait and see how Scott heals. Then he can come home. Hopefully this is a short hospital stay. Considering Scott's last infection that put him into septic shock this really hasn't been too bad!

Rainy Day

Sometimes rainy days are nice. It gives me the chance to stay inside and blog, right! We've been in Utah for 12 days now and it has been mostly HOT -usual August weather here. It really has been a vacation. We've had a lot of fun with family, met new family members, met old friends and new friends. Thankfully we've had 2 weeks to get everything in. I am feeling ready to go home now though. Back to reality. School starts in 2 weeks and I really should make the kids get up before 9am. Otherwise it will be a rude awakening on the first day!
I guess I should update on Scott. It has been over 6 months since his transplant now. We are used to the medications and procedures. The day after we arrive home Scott has 3 medical appointments to catch up after 2 weeks off. The fact that we left the country is pretty amazing! Scott even went in a pool a few times. That is the advantage of being tube free. He still looks forward to being more limber and having fewer aches and pains. I think that will just take time. We're not sure when he will be ready to go back to work but it is now on the radar. He looks forward to going back. That is the next big step forward.