Great Results from Chest X-ray and Blood Tests

Brian woke up this morning, and the first thing he said was, “I’m hungry.” That was a good beginning to what has been a good day.

Later in the afternoon, the attending doctor came with some great news. The results from last night’s chest x-ray showed no more effusion – the fluid in his lungs was gone. I couldn’t believe it! The doctor was also shocked at the results. We were thinking and preparing for possible surgery to get rid of the fluid in his lungs.

Brian has been fever-free all day today, and even ate and drank a little for breakfast and lunch. His output is normal, although he is still on an IV. Blood test results showed that his white blood cell count is around 9 (normal). A couple of days his WBC soared at 23. The markers showing inflammation (ESR) was 6 (normal), where a couple of days ago it went as high as 59.

The doctors are trying to figure out why Brian was vomiting and spiking a fever yesterday, and the conclusion is that he possibly has caught a virus totally unrelated to the pneumonia. They suctioned his nose for a culture today to see if that was the case. He screamed so much during the suctioning, and was quite angry at me afterwards for allowing them to do that to him.

He has been sleeping all afternoon – over 4 hours now, and still shows no sign of waking. Rest is good – his body is continuing to fight.

The feeling is that we are seeing some light at the end of this long tunnel. I’m still not allowing myself to get overly excited because of all the ups and downs we’ve had recently, but if he continues to be fever-free, we will get to go home soon. Brian and I are ready to say goodbye to this hospital room.