Well, after a long night for Brent, we are going home today. I was determined to bring him home with or without doctors orders. Sometimes enough is just enough. After too many mishaps and mistakes he’s better off at home. I do realize that nurses are overworked and underpayed, but I truly worry for those patients who have no medical knowledge or can’t advocate for themselves or have someone who can advocate for them. It really is scary sometimes. Enough about that. 

The fever is essentially gone, all labs look good. The lung samples did finally grow something and they don’t need to do a more evasive biopsy. Thankfully. 

Brent will go home on IV antibiotics and will get the suspected tooth/teeth extracted tomorrow. He will repeat a CT scan in two weeks on the lungs to make sure they are improving. 

We do appreciate modern medicine, and the medical community as a whole. Sometimes we just shake our heads though and really wonder...

Thank you for your love, prayers, faith and friendship. You’re the best support team ever. 

 I know I haven't updated, just not a lot going on here. 

As I updated previously, the TEE (Transesophageal echocardiography) did not show anything to be concerned about. We are very thankful for that news. That means his artificial heart valve is still clean. 

The Bronchoscope, so far, is inconclusive. The cultures from the lung have not shown any growth. That is great, but frustrating also, as there are still no answers as to what type of bacteria to treat. The Pulmonologist doesn't want to have to do a lung biopsy if he doesn't have to. The stupid tooth is still the suspected cause of infection, with the pneumonia being a secondary infection to that. He is more susceptible to pneumonia since already having it, and the scarring in his lungs. We've been waiting all day for the oral surgeon. Hoping it gets extracted today, but who knows?

Brent's fevers have been better. No high fevers for a couple of days now. 

Everyone seems on the same page, it's just taking forever. If the tooth gets pulled and all goes well, and he is just here getting IV antibiotics, that is definitely something we can do at home.

Infectious Disease docs have changed up the IV antibiotics again, as they rule out various things. 

Other than that, we are just quietly celebrating our 36th Anniversary. He's asleep and I'm typing. Seems about right. Ha. He's been NPO all day waiting for the Oral Surgeon, so I can't even go get us something yummy to eat. Oh well. One of the Nutrition team brought up flowers for us. :)  

Grateful for small and large blessings. Grateful we made it to 36. Grateful for sunshine and happy thoughts. Grateful for you. 

UPDATE

 Well, we are very thankful. The cardiologist saw nothing to be concerned about on the TEE. Yay!!! 

 Sorry for the lack of updates. There’s really not a lot to update. Still just cooling his jets in the hospital. He still has fevers, but no super high fevers since yesterday. He’s going down in a few minutes (remember, hospital time is not normal) for TEE and a bronchoscope. Not a whole lot of fun for him. They are hoping to rule out endocarditis on the artificial heart valve with the TEE, and hoping to get samples of the interior of the lungs to tell them what’s going on so they can then dial in the correct antibiotics. 

Here’s hoping for good news. If you’re still hanging in there with us, prayers for no endocarditis would be very much appreciated. 

We love you, our support team of family, friends, neighbors, and even people we don’t know. Thanks for all you do for us, no matter how big or small. 

Tina and Thomas moved to Provo today and they couldn’t have done it without our amazing friends. You’re always going above and beyond. We are forever in your debt. 💞

We’re baaaack. . .

 Well, I didn’t really want to post on the blog, but I understand that there are so many people who love Brent but don’t want to keep bothering me with texts. 

Yep, we’re back in the hospital. Brent was diagnosed with pneumonia on Tuesday and we were treating it at home with two IV antibiotics. His Infectious Disease Doc made me promise that if he so much as twitched that I would get him to the ER. We all know how quickly Brent can crash. Interestingly enough, the pneumonia might be a secondary infection to a tooth that needs to be extracted. This is the tooth that the crown has been knocked off twice during previous intubation. It was supposed to be extracted yesterday afternoon but his body had a different plan. . .

 Yesterday his low grade fever decided it wanted to be an overachiever and jumped up. He was also coughing more. Two twitches earned him a trip to the ER. After about six hours they were finally able to find a room to move him to. The chest X-ray showed a little worse than two days ago and white count was elevated. They decided to admit him to treat with more hard core antibiotics per his ID docs orders. 

Last night after I left to go home he spiked a 102 and they put ice and a fan on him. This morning when I got here he was at 103. The docs haven’t been in yet today. The hospital is totally full so they’re a bit busy. So since we haven’t talked to the docs yet I don’t have a lot of info on why the fevers are not coming down. 

So, at least this time I can actually be here at the hospital with him. 

You get a whole new appreciation for the doctors and nurses that are being run ragged. This 500 bed hospital is full. Our daughter works at Primary Children’s and it is also full. The hospitals, for whatever reason, are understaffed. I love and appreciate good nurses and doctors that give tirelessly to the care of others. We have so many doctors and nurses that have literally saved Brent’s life over the years. We love them. We lost one of our favorites a couple weeks ago. She left this earth much too soon. She was more than a nurse. She was our friend. I wish I could say that we were special, but after listening to her funeral service I realized that she took the same care and showed the same love to everyone who she met. I knew she was sick. I visited her at the hospital and we had several late night chats during covid. She never put herself or her health before her family, friends or patients. I hope to be like her someday.