another infection...

Caleb has another infection. He has been having a hard time since Sunday. Wednesday morning, the nurse practitioner finally placed an order to do a blood culture. And, surprise, they found out Caleb has an infection. I don't know what took them so long to decide to do a blood culture. If they had done the culture sooner (like Tuesday morning when I asked about it), Caleb would not have gotten this sick.

Wednesday night at about 11 p.m., the hospital called me to tell me Caleb was having a very bad night and they were going to have to put him back on the respirator. He is too tired from fighting the infection to be able to breath on his own. I found out Thursday that Wednesday night he was having a very, very bad night. He was pretty close to not making it (again, if they had done a blood culture Tuesday when I asked about it, Caleb probably would have never gotten this sick). They had to do chest compressions (kind of like CPR) and give him some pretty strong medicine to get his heart rate up. His heart rate is good now and they have not needed to do anymore chest compressions.

They started him on 3 antibotics Wednesday after they found out about the infection. Last I heard, they are still trying to pinpoint excactly where the infection is coming from. They should know today or tomorrow.

Last night, Caleb was not taking any of his own breaths. The respirator was doing all of the work for him. He looked at me with confusion in his eyes. He just wants to know what happened - why is there a tube in his throat? why doesn't he make any noise when he cries? why does he feel so bad? where is his pacifier?

They are still giving him his feedings through the feeding tube. He is getting 100 ccs every 4 hours (30 ccs equals one ounce). His IV fluids have been cut back more.

He has a doctor at Gwinnett that we really like. He is back today.

Caleb is 5 months old today.