Tweet
Hi Everyone,
Well, after four and a half weeks in hospital, Genevieve and I are finally back home. Her back stopped oozing and her temperature came down and stayed down so they finally let us out. The latest blood cultures didn't grow anything untoward so they reckon we've got these bugs on the ropes.
Genevieve still has to take oral antibiotics for the next fortnight and I'm about to start feeding her lots of live yoghurt to try to counteract the horrider digestive side effects. She's been on various antibiotics for the past three / four weeks already and I think there are no friendly bacteria left in her gut - with predictable effects. But it's worth it if we can kill this infection without having to take out the rods.
She's fairly comfortable most of the time - she's only been taking paracetomol (is that the same as Tylenol?) for the last couple of days. She'd previously been taking Nefepam as well: a bit of an odd one but we had to take her off codeine because she got so constipated and of diclofenac because she got nauseous and paracetomol alone wasn't enough. Nefepam is only licensed for over fifteens in the UK but it worked well for her. The hospital have said it's OK for us to use Ibuprofen in addition tot he paracetomol if she needs anything extra.
We're just hoping now that her back will actually fuse as most of the bone graft was lost during her second surgery. Apparently sometimes an early infection like this one can actually stimulate bone growth and the back fuses quite happily. Sometimes it doesn't and in that case we mighg have to look at further surgery in the future. Her spine is absolutely stable though because of the metalwork so handling her is not a problem.
And she is so straight and beautiful: her sitting is much more stable and it's fabulous not to have to wrap her in plastic all the time just so she can sit upright! She will have to wear a much smaller hip brace to protect her hip position.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Lorrie
Well, after four and a half weeks in hospital, Genevieve and I are finally back home. Her back stopped oozing and her temperature came down and stayed down so they finally let us out. The latest blood cultures didn't grow anything untoward so they reckon we've got these bugs on the ropes.
Genevieve still has to take oral antibiotics for the next fortnight and I'm about to start feeding her lots of live yoghurt to try to counteract the horrider digestive side effects. She's been on various antibiotics for the past three / four weeks already and I think there are no friendly bacteria left in her gut - with predictable effects. But it's worth it if we can kill this infection without having to take out the rods.
She's fairly comfortable most of the time - she's only been taking paracetomol (is that the same as Tylenol?) for the last couple of days. She'd previously been taking Nefepam as well: a bit of an odd one but we had to take her off codeine because she got so constipated and of diclofenac because she got nauseous and paracetomol alone wasn't enough. Nefepam is only licensed for over fifteens in the UK but it worked well for her. The hospital have said it's OK for us to use Ibuprofen in addition tot he paracetomol if she needs anything extra.
We're just hoping now that her back will actually fuse as most of the bone graft was lost during her second surgery. Apparently sometimes an early infection like this one can actually stimulate bone growth and the back fuses quite happily. Sometimes it doesn't and in that case we mighg have to look at further surgery in the future. Her spine is absolutely stable though because of the metalwork so handling her is not a problem.
And she is so straight and beautiful: her sitting is much more stable and it's fabulous not to have to wrap her in plastic all the time just so she can sit upright! She will have to wear a much smaller hip brace to protect her hip position.
Thank you all for your prayers and support.
Lorrie
Comment