Monday, January 23, 2017

can't catch a break

we took a couple steps back with our darling Ivan yesterday. out of the blue, he decided he didn't want to eat. because this is so unlike him, it was decided that some labs would be drawn to see what, if anything, might be going on to cause this disinterest in food. the labs showed that Ivan definitely had an infection, but the type and source were unknown. more labs were drawn and tests done to try and determine this, and Ivan was found to have a UTI. this news actually came as a great relief because there was concern that his PICC line was infected, which would have been very bad. we can handle a pesky UTI!

unfortunately Ivan's hemoglobin and hematocrit have not been going up as hoped. we were waiting for his body to kick in the red blood cell production, but that just wasn't happening. so when I got into the hospital this morning I was told the docs were recommending another blood transfusion. this is Ivan's third. essentially we were just asking too much of Ivan to fight off an infection, eat, and make new red blood cells. a transfusion is a clear cut way that we can give him a leg up and help him feel better. it is our hope and prayer that the transfusion will perk him up and he will just soar.

in the meantime we wait for the antibiotics to kick the UTI's butt, we let Ivan rest as much as possible, and we offer him small amounts of milk as he starts to show the motivation to eat again.

as John said, he's getting so much ice cream when he gets home.

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