A Good Night's Sleep and a Possible Infection

Last night, Chris took a Benadryl that we'd had in the house.   This morning he said he'd had a good night's sleep!   So happy!  We'll add Benadryl to our shopping list for this afternoon's trip to the store.

Around 2, we went in to see Jen at DaVita.  We brought all our usual stuff and one extra thing:  the piece of fiber from Sunday night's drain.  She said it didn't look like anything to worry about, so we tossed it.

Chris told her about his exit site and she took a look at it.  She got a big Q-tip and took a sample of the little bit of drainage that came out.  They're going to culture it and see if anything's in there.  Dr. Mallea wasn't available for us to show.   She's going to have us keep an eye on it.  We decided we'll take a picture of it each day with a ruler so any changes can be spotted.

She gave Chris his 26K of EPO and an iron shot, and made two more appointments for the coming weeks.

Later in the afternoon, she called and said that Dr. Mallea wanted to put Chris on a week-long round of antibiotics just in case the site has any sort of infection.  She called in a med order to Walgreens.  She said they'll have preliminary test results on the sample as early as Friday, and a full report on Monday or Tuesday.

Basically, we're being hypervigilant.  Infections where the hole is (Peritonitis) are very bad... and with the new heart valve also at risk (Endocarditis) we can't take any risks of infection.  In addition to watching how the site looks, we'll also keep an eye on his temperature and see if it starts hurting.

Tomorrow, we'll be checking BP again in hopes of starting Cardiac Rehab.