Doug is still having fevers, and early this morning he broke out in a rash all over his body. The doc called it an "impressive rash" and called in an infectious disease specialist. The specialist came to look at Doug and asked a series of questions: 'have you recently visited a foreign country, have you used recreational drugs, do you have exotic pets', etc. No to all questions. The specialist admitted he really couldn't know for sure, but he made an educated guess that Doug was having a reaction to one of the antibiotics. Since they didn't know which one, both antibiotics were switched to other ones. The new antibiotics are Aztreonam and Daptomycin. I've never heard of either of them. Doug was also started on Flagyl, so now he is on two antibiotics and two anti-fungal meds. It might take a day or two for the rash to go away. Fortunately, the rash is not causing Doug to itch.
Doug's highest fever today was 102.6 -- he got Tylenol and ice packs and it came back down.
He had a repeat chest X-ray this morning. The right side of his lung looked better but the report said "increased left lower lobe atelectasis". Atelectasis means technically "collapse of all or part of a lung". In Doug's case it is fairly minor involving a small part of his lung and caused by shallow breathing. He will be started on a machine that measures his breaths and encourages him to breathe deeply. Didn't get the name of that gizmo but it sounds like a good idea. Don't want it to progress to pneumonia!
Doug now has open sores in his mouth and not eating. So he still feels pretty crummy. We do expect that to get better soon.
The good news for today: on the blood count, he had 120 neutrophils! Not much but its a start!
I am feeling less stressed today. A good friend made a prayer request in church today, and another friend called to pray with me on the phone. I can feel peace and strength for me, and healing for Doug.
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