DAY 31: Antibiotics
The long, slow battle against pneumonia continues. Mom is infected with what is called a smart bug, a bacterium that's resistant to antibiotics. If ever I wanted to be up against the last bug in its class, it's now, but we're facing the valedictorian of germs.
In fact, we're facing two of them.
The first is Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, an aquatic beast that loves to colonize hospital fluids. It takes advantage of the life-saving instruments put into the patient to by-pass the usual defenses that we all have in place. In the words of Dr. Cunha at State University of New York, S maltophilia is "not capable of causing disease in healthy hosts without the assistance of invasive medical devices that bypass normal host defenses." Little bastards.
The second is Klebsiella oxytoca, another opportunist that thrives on a weakened immune system. This is the bug that is directly responsible for Mom's pneumonia. It's a deadly one, as Dr. Brochert at personalmd.com points out: "While normal pneumonia frequently resolves without complication, Klebsiella pneumonia more frequently causes lung destruction and pockets of pus in the lung (known as abscesses)." Again, the invasive treatments such as catheter IVs are this bug's playground.
The germs are bad enough that we need to be careful that droplets of fluid from Mom do not infect other patients in the ICU. So, we need to wear plastic aprons and rubber gloves and, sometimes, face masks. Kevin came to visit yesterday. Here he is suited up at Mom's bedside:
The doctors are fighting the bacteria with three antibiotics: Fortaz, vancomycin, and Levaquin.
Today, the doctors found that Mom is holding steady on her blood oxygen levels, and they were able to reduce the amount of oxygen from the ventilator to 75%, down from 100% two days ago and 80% yesterday. That's good progress. She's heavily sedated still, as you can see in this shot of Dr. Rosenberg checking her this morning:
From here, we'll just stay the course. If Mom can kick these two bacteria and get over the pneumonia hump, she'll have a fairly clear path ahead of her.
In other news, there's a lovely layer of snow across Denver. I've enjoyed walking to and from the hospital in it, breathing the crisp air and rejuvenating between times with Mom. Here's the view from my room at the Yaffe House this morning:
Yesterday, I told Dr. Hodgin about this blog for Mom. She read it last night, and then told everybody about it on rounds this morning. Here's the whole interdisciplinary rounds team taking a moment to read this very blog, specifically Dr. Heit's photo on Day 22:
I want to take a moment to thank all of you friends, family, and medical staff who are following Mom's recovery and helping our family in so many ways. This is a journey for one woman, undertaken by a thousand caring souls.
In fact, we're facing two of them.
The first is Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, an aquatic beast that loves to colonize hospital fluids. It takes advantage of the life-saving instruments put into the patient to by-pass the usual defenses that we all have in place. In the words of Dr. Cunha at State University of New York, S maltophilia is "not capable of causing disease in healthy hosts without the assistance of invasive medical devices that bypass normal host defenses." Little bastards.
The second is Klebsiella oxytoca, another opportunist that thrives on a weakened immune system. This is the bug that is directly responsible for Mom's pneumonia. It's a deadly one, as Dr. Brochert at personalmd.com points out: "While normal pneumonia frequently resolves without complication, Klebsiella pneumonia more frequently causes lung destruction and pockets of pus in the lung (known as abscesses)." Again, the invasive treatments such as catheter IVs are this bug's playground.
The germs are bad enough that we need to be careful that droplets of fluid from Mom do not infect other patients in the ICU. So, we need to wear plastic aprons and rubber gloves and, sometimes, face masks. Kevin came to visit yesterday. Here he is suited up at Mom's bedside:
The doctors are fighting the bacteria with three antibiotics: Fortaz, vancomycin, and Levaquin.
Today, the doctors found that Mom is holding steady on her blood oxygen levels, and they were able to reduce the amount of oxygen from the ventilator to 75%, down from 100% two days ago and 80% yesterday. That's good progress. She's heavily sedated still, as you can see in this shot of Dr. Rosenberg checking her this morning:
From here, we'll just stay the course. If Mom can kick these two bacteria and get over the pneumonia hump, she'll have a fairly clear path ahead of her.
In other news, there's a lovely layer of snow across Denver. I've enjoyed walking to and from the hospital in it, breathing the crisp air and rejuvenating between times with Mom. Here's the view from my room at the Yaffe House this morning:
Yesterday, I told Dr. Hodgin about this blog for Mom. She read it last night, and then told everybody about it on rounds this morning. Here's the whole interdisciplinary rounds team taking a moment to read this very blog, specifically Dr. Heit's photo on Day 22:
I want to take a moment to thank all of you friends, family, and medical staff who are following Mom's recovery and helping our family in so many ways. This is a journey for one woman, undertaken by a thousand caring souls.
Posted by Jason Kelly | 12:09 PM
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