Fevers

One thing I forgot to mention in my quick babble was James' fevers. Part of the urgency in getting James under control last night was also the fact that tylenol was not helping his fevers and they were continuing to rise. They were beginning to worry about seizures. When you have a fever your body also breathes faster, so this was working against his lungs, as well as making his heart rate rise into a very unhealthy level. His blood pressure was also high because of the stress on his body.

I am thankful to report that at this time he has been fever free for over 12 hours. His fever broke around 3am, or probably some time before that. At 3:30am he woke up in one of his screaming shocks, pulling at his mask. At this time they also discovered that he had cooled down ... the biPAP had helped his breathing allowing his body to relax, on top of that his IV line had come apart and had been running into his bed ... meaning he was sitting in a very wet cold bed. He went from such a high fever to being too cold and we had to cover him in "hot" blankets to warm him up again. Thankfully his fevers have not returned.

Rob's last report says that they had a physiotherapist come in this afternoon to pat his back and help loosen up the phlegm. His breathing has remained high all day and has just now (7pm) dropped down. At 3pm they started him back on his g-tube feeds, just slow continual feeds right now, so we'll have to see how he tolerates that. He continues to sleep lots or just stare at the TV, looking so lost and pitiful.