CHRISTMAS IN THE PICU

Update as of 4:30pm:

Ben's doctor's told us that they would really like him to stay another night while the blood cultures grow out, results will be in the earliest tomorrow. However they do understand the desire to be home with family so they have left it up to me. We have decided to go home and take the chance that we might have to return to the PICU tomorrow. They are concerned that if the blood cultures (two of them) grow out the same that Ben is dealing with some source of infection in his body that we are unaware of. If that is the case we will come back tomorrow for more tests and IV antibiotics. Hopefully this is not the case and we will be able to stay home for Christmas. Please keep Benjamin in your prayers. Thanks to all!!!

Ben with Santa Claus

Now that I have created this blog, I thought I would take the opportunity to update everyone on Ben's progress. We have been here for 5 days now and he has done remarkably well. He is completely off his oxygen and c-pap which is wonderful. The reason we are still here is because he has had two blood cultures come back positive for the same bug. Initially they thought it was a contaminate and not a real infection, but because a second one came back positive it makes them wonder just a bit. He is on an IV antibiotic that they wanted him to stay on for 7 days which would have put us here through Christmas. (the "infectious disease" team that is) But...we have come up with a better plan. As long as the ID team agrees, I will be going home with Ben today and continuing his antibiotics "intramuscularly", meaning that I will give him a couple shots once a day for the rest of the duration. That means we can be home for Christmas - yay!!! We have been so blessed by friends and neighbors during this stay. Some have finished my Christmas shopping, others have fed us generously and some have dropped off random gifts as well. We can't thank all those little santa's helpers for everything that you have done for my family. We so appreciate the kindness and generosity. We are looking forward to Christmas so that we can be together again as a family. May you all enjoy this holiday season and remember to hug your kids and family a little tighter as there are still many children and families that won't be home for Christmas this year.