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 Brent came home tonight. He had his central line replaced. He will be on continuous (24/7) IV antibiotics for at least six weeks. At least he’ll be in style with a manny pack. Haha. 

Good news/bad news

GOOD NEWS: the heart valves look clean!  Yay!  Now just need a PICC line inserted and orders for discharge. 

BAD NEWS:  can’t get a PICC inserted. No accessible, big enough veins to get one inserted. That is not good. Not good at all. 

So now we wait, again.  

sorry for the lack of updates

 It's been a crazy week, month, year, etc. . .  You get it. . . If I don't update, be assured that that usually means there is nothing too terribly crucial to report. 

Brent has been chilling in his hospital room getting all sorts of antibiotics and all of the other good stuff he usually gets in his nightly TPN. 

Blood cultures have been clean for a couple of days nows which is a good sign. -->  No fevers, which is also a good sign. -->  We are used to the signs you see on a mountainous road going every which way and winding back and forth.  -/\__~~^\/---  We'll take the straight forward signs. We're tired. 

Right now Brent is down having a TEE or TTE, not sure which one, but it is so they can see the heart valves from the inside. It's a much better visual than a CT or an ECHO to see if the bacteria has caused any growth on the heart valves. We are praying hard that the heart is clean. If so, he may come home today. If not, well, who knows. 

In order to come home, he has to have a PICC placed in his arm so he can do his TPN at home. You can't administer TPN in a normal peripheral IV. If the heart is clean, we just wait to see how long his Infectious Disease Dr, wants to wait until he can have another central line placed in his chest. She usually keeps him on the IV antibiotics for a month or so before she will sign off on it. Better to be safe than sorry with Brent. 

So, now I'm just chilling in his room waiting. We live a life of constantly waiting. Waiting for procedures, waiting for doctors, waiting for test results, waiting for news sometimes good, sometimes devastating, waiting for the inevitable meltdown, waiting for sweet appreciated prayers to be uttered by so many of you, waiting for those prayers to be answered, waiting for the beautiful tender mercies, waiting for the many miracles and being ever-so-thankful for the many we have witnessed, waiting for the chance to live life normally for a change and go to the mountains, waiting for peace to come on those dark days when life is nothing even resembling normalcy . . . just always waiting. 

We will let you know what the TEE shows. Here's hoping and praying it is clean. 

ALSO, so many of you commented on the last post, but it just says 'anonymous' so I have no idea who you are but thank you. We love you. We love our team of family and friends. We love our circle of people that take such good care of us and we feel of your love and strength. It truly takes a village to get through life and we are thankful for ours.  

. . .

 Well, Brent was admitted on Wednesday night with a fever of 104+. We initially thought he started running a fever because Ela (our granddaughter that lives with us) has been sick and he probably caught what she has. It started as a low grade but escalated quickly and he won a trip to Murray ER. 

Fast forward to today where he still sits here being pumped with antibiotics and we are told that the blood cultures have tested positive for a rare bacteria in his bloodstream and also out of his central lines. 🤬. This was not what we were hoping to hear. This particular bacteria is very sticky and clings to foreign objects, also not what we want to hear. The central line has now been removed, which is very disheartening because it was just replaced in February. This bacteria is also dangerous for his artificial heart valve. That is THE biggest concern right now. To have to replace the heart valve a third time would be dangerous and you lose percentage of success and effectiveness with each replacement. 🤬🤬. 

Of course they are throwing all of the big gun antibiotics at it. There’s also a debate going on as to if it’s safe to start his TPN (his IV nutrition) because you don’t want to feed the bacteria a bunch of nutrients.  Way too many things to consider when dealing with Brent’s poor body. 

If you’re the praying type and like specific things to pray about, pray the heart is clean. Thanks a million. Love you all.