ICU Update 29 Nov 07

Today Andrea is stable, not showing much improvement but not getting worse. There still is no sign of what is causing the infection. There are many possible causes but here is what I understand. Which I admit is not much when it comes to medicine. This is the dumbed down version of the dumbed down version the doctors told me but it is essentially correct.

1. Bacterial - You fight this with antibiotics
2. Viral - No treatment really, you just have to let it runs its course
3. Inflammatory - Can be caused by reaction to chemo drugs. You fight this with steroids.

After 3 days of every known antibiotic and not seeing any significant change in Andrea's condition the odds decrease that Andrea pneumonia is bacterial. So each day that passes the doctors think this may be caused by a virus or inflammatory. I believe we are going to wait until Saturday or Sunday to see results from the antibiotics. Andrea may just be reacting slowly to the antibiotics due to her weakness and the chemo she has been on. If after the weekend there is still no change I think the next course will be steroids, thinking the cause may be inflammatory. The draw back to steroids is if the cause is an infection the steroids will allow the infection to grow, so they need to make sure Andrea's pneumonia is not caused by an infection.

I think after a week of antibiotics the odds there is still bacterial is low. Of course every day they continue to run tests to try to determine the cause to the best treatment decision option. As of today all the tests are inconclusive.

My assessment Andrea is stable but getting better if that makes sense. Today she has been very restful. Moving some which is good but not fighting the ventilator. I think she is using her strength to fight the infection vice the machine. Anyway it was a more restful day and I feel your prayers in this room. Andrea is about to surprise these doctors and nurses.

I can’t wait until they meet her.