Another guest post from Judah
The attending pulmonologist came around this morning (much earlier than usual) and gave us the ok to go home. We will be bringing oxygen home with us for the short-term (just while he sleeps), and then we'll have a follow-up appointment on Feb. 26th with the clinic pulmonologist. They're also going to draw some blood to test for a couple of rare lung conditions, mainly to rule them out. That test will take 4-6 weeks to get results back. The cultures they took when they did the bronchoscopy grew a small amount of a couple of different bacteria but not a large amount of anything, so they're confident that the antibiotics he's on will finish killing those off. We'll also be meeting later today with the Hopkins Home Care people, just to go over the oxygen setup at home and make sure we have what we need. The follow-up path is pretty clear, although he will probably need one more CT scan to see how things are progressing. If things are getting better on their own, then nothing more will really need to be done. If things aren't getting better but aren't getting worse, they'll probably want to do a lung biopsy (after they get the blood test results back) to see if they can figure out the underlying cause. If things get worse, then they'll be pretty sure it's aspiration and they'll push for a g-tube. Hopefully, we won't have to go down the biopsy or g-tube road. Anyway, the short version is: we're going home today! The antibiotics will continue for another week or two, and the prednisone will continue in diminishing doses for 2-3 more weeks.
You guys have dealt with this so well. Isaac is such the awesome baby (seriously, he deserves to wear his Superman costume again if he still fits in it ;)! Big hugs continue and hopes that this is going to be a wonderful homecoming for you all!
Posted by: Belle | February 09, 2009 at 01:18 PM
Sounds like progress. Also sounds rather frustrating. Hang in there!
Posted by: Steve S | February 09, 2009 at 01:23 PM