Staph Infection

The neurosurgeon brought in an infectious diseases specialist for Daniel's drainage. They determined yesterday that it's a staph infection, though they don't know yet what kind of staph infection it is. They expect that will occur tomorrow.

In the meantime, they have Daniel on two different antibiotics - Vancomycin and Ceftazidime. The first one is a two hour IV given twice a day. The second one is a 30 minute IV given 3 times per day. Per the second doc, he'll need to receive these IV's for 2, 4, or 6 weeks.

They were initially concerned that the staph infection could have made it into the bones, but they've ruled that out now. That would have required 6 weeks of IV's. Instead, it appears to only be into deep soft tissue which means about 4 weeks. Once he's released from the hospital they'll assign home health nurses for a few days to administer the IV's at our home, at least until they are confident that the family can do them. Don't worry, they've got a permanent "Pick" in his arm that you just plug the meds into, rather than start a new IV every time. Still, that's a helluva lot of antibiotics that he'll be receiving.

He was able to do PT this afternoon. Z wore him out really well, which is a good thing. It does appear that he's recovering some of his strength, though it's frustrating having one more thing put him back. We're just happy that they've got this under control, the surgery and pathology are all positive, and with time Daniel should be able to recover completely.