Update

Thank you for all the prayers and comments. It is great to read them throughout the day and very uplifting. They have a pc hooked up to a big plasma screen in the room but it's difficult to use for anything other than viewing things on the pc.

On Saturday and Sunday, they had a lot of issues attempting to control Dear Son's blood pressure, despite adding a medicine to control it. He was so unstable on Saturday that I was rather worried he was going to die on Mother's Day and was relieved to make it through the day. Mother's Day started out o.k. until they did a power check at the hospital and the power was shut off briefly for testing. I wish they would have told me that. My heart skipped a few beats as the power went off and I quickly looked at Dear Son who was still breathing on the ventilator. It took me a minute to realize that it probably had a battery back up. The second thought that entered my mind was what it must have been like when Hurricane Katrina hit with the power going out in the hospitals. I later confirmed with a staff member that I know that it was indeed a valid test of the power.

On Sunday evening, they did a blood transfusion due to the low hemoglobin (7.5). I had many reservations about authorizing this; I don't do this every day and was concerned about the safety of it. The blood transfusion appeared to have stabalized the blood pressure however the chest x ray continues to get worse. Yesterday, the lungs were not visible at all on the xray (they showed it to me) and he was considered a bad stable so to speak. Today's x-ray was unchanged.

During the rounds today, they indicated that this is a MRSA pneumonia. (The MRSA is not surprising-Dear Son has had over 50 hospitalizations in his life and the MRSA was diagnosed back in 2004). From what I am told, this makes it more problematic since he was so sick when he presented and because the MRSA pneumonia will make it more difficult to wean him from the ventilator since Dear Son is not very active (he is bedridden normally). The ventilator settings remain unchanged. They also indicated that we will remain in the PICU for some time. He has also become hyperglycemic as a result of the steroid so they will be keeping insulin at the bedside.

That is all for now. The doctors and nurses here have really done a great job and I am thankful for that.