Day 115: Movement (Pun Intended)

The past few days have been a moving target, some things in a good direction and others in the wrong direction. Ultimately we are still here working to get Cristian feeling better, however long it takes.

As we covered in the last update Cristian’s fevers had stopped but he had developed pancreatitis. Unfortunately the fevers returned but are low grade. We are giving Tylenol to help keep him comfortable and to help his body fight off whatever is causing the high temp. The doctors have been testing his blood when his temp spikes to test for the source but so far all tests have come back with no sign of infection. There is a chance that this is a result of his body working to heal the pancreatitis.

Speaking of, his pancreatitis is getting better! His belly size has come down and is no long tender to the touch. More good news is that he has been off the pain meds (morphine) for 24 hours and has done fine. The doctors see all these as good signs I. His overall recovery.

With his improvements we are slowly starting to reintroduce food/drink. Since the pancreatitis diagnosis last week Cristian has been received nutrition via his IV to make sure his pancreas is not having to work to digest food. We are now ready to try some liquids today (other than sips of water) and see how he reacts. There is a chance that Cristian will be able to eat solids in the next day or 2, at which point they will stop the IV nutrition.

We have had a new issue arise in the past day, and that’s diarrhea (bowel movements) with bad cramping. Since about 3am this morning Cristian has had painful cramps followed by diarrhea about every 45 minutes. We have sent some samples off to check for a stomachs bug, and started on some anti-cramping meds. Hopefully we will get some quick relief on this because currently this is the only real discomfort he is experiencing.

As further overall signs of Cristian’s recovery we have some good news, we have neutrophils! For the 2nd day in a row Cristian’s blood has contained the cells that are part of the immune system which we measure to see if his body is able to protect itself from general infections and if it is safe to leave. We are still a few days from being above the threshold for discharge but this is wonderful news!

Yesterday we crossed the 3 week mark from this stay. By far our longest stay in the hospital. During that time Maria and I have been swapping almost every day between who is here via who is at home. Sadly we are getting quite efficient at this process. These 3 weeks have also had us move rooms twice, and required Cristian to have his port reaccessed two times.

Based on where we are today, we still a few more days before we go home. I feel like that has been the statement for this entire stay. But this time we are seeing good improvements in Cristian’s overall well-being that we had not seen yet. There are many good signs that point to this being the real “few more days”. Time will tell.

We ask that everyone who is supporting Cristian and our family to continue to pray for his quick recovery and our release. We cannot wait to have our whole family back together and we know God can make it happen.