Fever

I went and visited Carlos last night.  I got some things done during the day while his parents visited with him.  Carlos continues to be stable however he has a fever, between 102-103 degrees.  That's always concerning after surgery.  I guess he was shivering and they actually did a full workup beyond infection.  There were some concerns about neurological problems so he had a brain CT early yesterday morning.  That was negative thank god.  They sent blood cultures, which are still pending.  His MRSA swabs from the day before surgery were negative.  They did aspirate some fluid from his swollen right foot and ankle, which confirmed that he does have gout.

If you remember, he was running a low-grade temp prior to surgery.  We were attributing it to the gout.  So this fever may not be infection-related.  Carlos has always had a tendency to run high fevers even with just a cold (and the kids do as well). So that's another possibility.  They are hitting him with multiple antibiotics.  They do daily chest x-rays to check placement of the various tubes in his body so that will also show if he is developing pneumonia.

There was also some talk of tube feedings but his bowel sounds were non-existent as of last night, so they will hold off on that I think, until those come back.

He didn't get any blood as of yet - instead, they have an albumin drip.  One of the concerns with actual blood products is the concern about developing antibodies which could make it more difficult to match a heart.

I'm heading up there to see him now so will write more later.