THE RASH

On Monday, Debbie noticed a rash on Tom's neck.  She pointed it out to the nurse.  Each day the rash has been a little worse and I continued to point it out to his nurses.  This morning the critical care doctor said something about it and changed one of the antibiotics Tom was put on (I'm trying to find out exactly when it was started).  Now, I know I've told you that they discontinued the antibiotics to try and help the kidneys but that was only the IV antibiotics.  Tom is also taking oral antibiotics and these have continued to be administered.  All of this gets really confusing at times!!

The kidney doctor came in right after I posted this morning.  He had a theory that the reaction (rash), presumably related to one of the antibiotics, might also be affecting the kidneys.  I thought that sounded like a good explaination as to why Tom's kidney performance has declined a bit the past few days.  Of course, they just stopped the antibiotic today so it will take a few days to see if that is true.  I am praying, praying, praying that it is and the kidneys will rebound.  He said the kidneys are getting enough fluid and although the extra fluid that Tom is retaining might be uncomfortable, it's better than the kidneys not having enough fluid.  So, we wait to see what happens.

The Bililrubin did go up today but only a half-point.  Although up is not good, it's not climbing as much so maybe/hopefully we will see it start to go down soon.

I still don't have any other readings.  It doesn't look like Tom has eaten much lunch and he's been asleep my entire visit (so far).  I don't want to wake him up to ask him about PT so unless someone else or something else wakes him up, I may just go back to the office and let him sleep.