Rocky week

We had a bit of a rocky week last week but we seem to be back up and running once again (knock on wood).

Drew finished his last dose of Colistin that he had been on for culturing Achromobacter last Wednesday night. There had always been some concern that he would have a reaction to the Colistin because inhaled antibiotics seems to irritate his tracheomalacia and cause bronchospasms (re: his airway collapses when he takes it), but that didn't seem to be the case this time and with this medication and we were relieved. But about a week ago, he started having an increased cough and a decreased appetite and I could just tell that something wasn't right.

I had emailed his docs to let them know that he was coughing more than normal, and just stayed in close touch with them over the holiday weekend in case something were to change. He never got bad, just coughing a lot and tiring easily, so we were doing extra airway clearance and trying to keep him extra hydrated. Last Monday or Tuesday I thought we were getting better and exchanged a few emails with his doc again letting her know that things definitely weren't getting worse and I thought seemed to be getting a little bit better. Then on Thursday morning his oxygen saturations we in the low 90's and he was tired and coughing up a storm. I took him in for a sick visit and they did a chest x-ray. The x-ray looked fine but they heard some crackles in his lower left lobe and decided to try an oral antibiotic until we got the culture report back. If his oxygen went below 90 we agreed that he would need to be admitted and put on some oxygen until we figure out what's going on.

After just 1 day on the oral antibiotic, things improved greatly. His cough had almost gone away and his oxygen was on its way back to normal. We don't have the culture back yet, but I really really really hope that what he had going on was just a virus that was going around that caused some extra mucus and bacteria to flair up in. I guess we will see soon! I'm just hoping that this week goes smoother than last.