Right Full Hip Replacement

Post surgery, the resident doctor who assisted the surgeon, came out to tell me that Erika's surgery went exactly as planned. As expected, her hip was dead. Upon severing and removing the ball of her hip, a piece of cartilage was loose, hanging off the joint. So not only was she dealing the pain of the collapses joint, but it was also bone on bone for a year and a half.

On the bed, nurses rolled Erika into her room where she would be staying for the next three days. As she got closer I noticed in her face that she was dealing with immense pain. The pain she was feeling, she described, was as bad as her most painful day before surgery. The doctor came in and was as surprised as we were, that she was in pain, for he had said many times, "The pain you feel will disappear immediately after the surgery. You will feel so much better." Not exactly. He rushed for an immediate injection of a "femoral nerve block" from the anesthesiology team.

All night nurses worked hard to get her pain managed. Thanks to the nerve block, she was able to rest part of the night. 

This morning Dr. Pelt, the orthopedic surgeon, wanted to take another x-ray to make sure there were not any damage to the bone, such as a fracture caused by the surgery itself. The results came back negative. He believes because her hip collapsed for so long, her nerves may have adjusted to the shortened length. Because she now has the corrected length of hips in place, her nerves now have to learn to adjust to the stretching, 5mm to be exact, immediately. Combine this with the fact that Erika has been tolerating very high doses of pain medication for the past two years, the standard dosage of pain medication they have been giving her may not be adequate. 

So for now, unfortunately not like other patients, Erika still has to deal with more pain post surgery, but at least we have an idea that things should get better from this point. She has not taken her first step yet with her full weight on it. Erika most likely will be admitted into a rehabilitation hospital for aggressive physical therapy and with 24 hour support, located in South Ogden. On her spare time there she would spend plenty of hours mastering the game Bingo among other elderly patients also going through rehab.

Always in good spirit.

Fever Free for 48 Hours and Possibly Going Home

Docs said that if Erika is fever free for 48 hours and is able to breath without issues, she would be able to go  home. It has been over 48 hours now, so we'll find out later this afternoon.

We still have not received any results from the lab.

Enterovirus 68

The reason why it is taking a long time to get results is because the biopsy from her lungs were sent to a federal lab outside of Utah to be tested for Enterovirus 68. The pulmonologist was complaining he had to fill out a 2 page report to be sent with the sample. Luckily Erika appears to be recovering from whatever she had. So no matter the results, we hope to be out of the hospital soon.

No More Fevers and Still Waiting for Results

Since last night Erika has not been getting anymore fevers. Her coughing has been under control and she is breathing slightly better but is still on oxygen. Her biopsy from her bronchial tree is still waiting for a complete growth to get an answer, but it is growing. Hopefully today we'll know what is in her lungs. Judging by Erika's tone of voice and her breathing pattern, she is getting better. 

Chatting about her nephew and niece and Clash of Clans, with her older brother Ernie.

Post Bronchoscopy

Post Bronchoscropy in Endoscopy floor at LDS Hospital

Photos of Erika's vocal cord, bronchial tree left and right, and her nostril.

As you can see above, from the bronchoscopy (starting from the top left to right), photos 2-4 shows signs of infection in the bronchial tree, in both sides of her lungs. They suspected that her nostril would also show signs of infection due to the rhino virus, the common cold, but it appears to be clear (last two photos). The doctor scraped off some samples from both sides of her lungs for the lab. Tomorrow morning we'll find out what exactly she has that is causing her shortness of breath. Currently she is still fighting a fever. Dr. Pearl, Pulmonologist, told the bone marrow doctors that Erika needs to be closely monitored for she is considered borderline ICU due her breathing. 

Persistent Fevers with Pneumonia and Bronchoscopy

Yesterday, when Erika was admitted, she was given Vancomyocin, a Gram+ antibiotic that would destroy the type of blood infection she had. Cultures show she had a type of staphylococcus bacteria in her blood. One hour into her infusion of Vancomyocin, she began to breakout in hives and was very itchy all over. Luckily they took her off of the antibiotics quick enough before it would have done more damage. Once Erika was stable again, they put her on a different type of antibiotic. 

Throughout the night Erika was coughing non-stop, with fevers of 103-104, and was having difficulty breathing. She is on oxygen right now. Every time she gets that high of a temperature, nurses draw blood for culturing and to check for lactic acid. Based on a scale of 1-4 for lactic acid, when Erika was checking in, she was at a 2.8. A 4 would put her in ICU. She was at a 1.8 last night and now at a 2.3. She has had three x-rays done on her lungs, but they didn't find anything abnormal. Just recently she just finished a CT scan on her lungs and doctors found evidence of pneumonia. At 4PM today Erika will have a bronchoscopy done to figure out what may be the cause of her difficulty breathing. The pulmonologist said that if there is one thing that will put her in ICU before the lactic acid, it will be her difficulty breathing. I hope they find whatever it is in her lungs quickly with a solution.

Admitted for Blood Infection

She is back in the hospital and it has been a very long time since she was last admitted. Since last week Thursday, Erika has been fighting a fever ranging from 100 to 104 degrees at home. Erika's new cycle, which was scheduled last week on Friday, had to be canceled because of her sickness. Blood cultures taken Friday showed positive on Saturday, evidence of the "rhino virus," a common cold. Her fever was persistent and went up to 104 early this morning, so the doctors decided to admit her. As Erika was checking into the hospital, the doctors got more blood results and found that her blood had a bacterial infection. She is now getting strong doses of Gram+ antibiotics via IV. They took more blood from her port to see if that may be causing the infection and also to test for fungal infection. We will get the results in a couple of days on those. 

I hope everyone had a fantastic summer and is excited for the change of season. I know we both are. Thanks for checking up on us.