Dude, Cancer sucks. I will prove it to you.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

GI Joe

Well at least now we know, and knowing is a portion (can't remember the exact percentage) of the battle.

They finally figured out why Cole has been having all these fevers.  He has developed a bacterial infection that is in his bloodstream and has infected his lungs.  Now before you freak out too much, we managed to catch it early enough that we can treat it.

The bacteria (who I have affectionately named "stupid son of a bitch how dare you fuck with my kid."  and I am going to go all Gemma on its ass) is part of a family (I think one of the 5 out of NY) of bacteria that can be found in dirt and in water and in air and in everything that touches us.  Now us non-chemo types are able to effectively and efficiently tell Mr. bacteria to take a flying leap into a giant pool of hot dinosaur poop.  Unfortunately Cole is not so lucky.

So Mr. B is here to stay for a while.  You see, he is a slow growing bacteria so apparently it takes longer to completely eradicate the bastard.  By longer I mean that Cole will be on antibiotics for......wait for it.......keep waiting for it.......quit complaining it''''''s not like you have anything better to do.............almost there............here it comes............at least six months, and possibly up to a year.  SUPER (please insert a slight lisp on the S and hold the R for at least 4.32344530948504983045984 seconds)!!!!!!!!!

The crazy thing about this whole banana operation is that it was kind of dumb luck and crazy good timing that we (I say we in order to be inclusive.  I know I am not a doctor but since my premium pays their salary, I can say we.) were able to figure it out.  I have been told by a guy with a clipped ear (not joking) that this bacteria does not usually grow in the normal culture bottles that they use, so it was sheer dumb luck that any cultures grew at all (it was the first one they drew way back at the beginning of last (i.e.g. crappy) week) and it explained why only one culture grew.  They would probably still be TSing Cole had he not had his scheduled CT scan today.  The CT showed images consistent with this type of bacterial infection.

After they figured this out they/we decided to take out Cole's central line.  They replaced it with an IV in his hand, and after they get on the front end of the infection (a few days from now) they will install a pic (k?) line in his arm instead of the central line in the chest.

I know that in the bigger scheme of things 20 months is not very long, but Cole has had his line in for 20 months and I have gotten to the point that I don't even remember him not having it.  It looks strange to see his chest without those damn lines and without that dirty orange pouch around his neck.

Fever is still high (peaked at 104.2), so we have turned the room into an icebox.

Cole will be here in the hospital for a few days, and then should be able to go home, and pretty soon get back into school.

Sorry if this post is more of a standard (well at least as standard as I can be) update, and lack my usual wit and elegance, but I am tired of this crap and don't feel whitey.

Maybe tomorrow will be more fun.  In the meantime please raise your glasses and toast Cole, badass mofo who don't take no crap off of nobody.

1 comment:

  1. Thinking of you guys. Ty cannot wait to see Cole later on in the month.

    ReplyDelete