Update

James has been doing relatively well the last day regarding his fevers. He has not had a fever since 2pm yesterday. Although the fevers are not present, he looks very drained and tired. He slept relatively well last night, only waking occasionally to get some coughing out of his system. There is still no spring in his step, he either snuggles or sits in in crib or on the chair. He will play, but has no desire to get up and run or climb: this indeed shows that he doesn't feel all that well.

The doctors came in today with a bit of a different view than yesterday. This is where we often get frustrated. We also seem to have a head doctor who has made up her mind and doesn't really want to listen (the joys of dealing with yet another "new" doctor who has not seen James before). They at this time feel that "it's just the influenza that has set this all off, he probably had the fevers for the 5 days prior to the actual onset of the cold and vomitting because his body was trying it's best to fight the flu off. They will wait until the blood cultures all come back (tonight or tomorrow morning), take him off the antibiotics and then discharge him." I said we would not allow him to go until we see what happens once he has been off the antibiotics for some time.

It would definitely be wonderful if it's just the influenza, but some things in the puzzle don't make sense if that is the case. Last time he arrived, we found nothing in his blood cultures, started him on antibiotics and 12 hours later he was doing much better. Even though he did not go fever-free for 24 hours, they let him go home because he looked so well. He comes off antibiotics and the fevers are back. He goes back onto antibiotics and the fevers disappear again. It could be concidence, he could simply have made it over the hump of the virus at the same time, but I want to be sure that it is. They have admitted that the cultures will not detect ALL bacteria infections, just the main and most common ones. So with these things in mind, we feel it is worth waiting an extra day or so in hospital to be sure he is indeed better. It's much better to wait extra day in his room, then to spend that same amount of time waiting in emerge a few days later.

Although they feel it's only the influenza they would still like James to see the respirologist again before he leaves to further discuss his lung disease and to see if there is anything we can do to assist him better at home. Although his lungs do act up and cause him to breath rapidly and laboured, they remain clear, which is definitely good. They have also taken all the x-rays (and there's lots of them) of his chest and sent them off to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto for a second opinion.

Since James has the influenza all procedures involving an anesthetic will have to wait for some time, until he his completely better and well on his way to recovery. This means no PORT (which is so badly needed as they are having trouble finding veins in our little guy), no endoscopy and no mickey (g-tube change) for some time. We are still waiting for the results of the Echo, they are looking into it today since it should have been back by now.