Moving in the Right Direction

Just a brief update to let everyone know that after several scary days, Parrish is moving in the right direction. Yesterday afternoon seemed to be the real turning point. He even ate some dinner last night and put on some real clothes. Parrish is still battling some headaches, but the doctor thinks that those will begin to subside tomorrow. 

They have determined that the bacteria that caused this infection is MRSA staph aureus. It is likely hospital acquired, according to the doctors. This is a highly resistant staph (one of the "super bugs") so they have to treat it with very aggressive antibiotics. Parrish is continuing to receive IV antibiotics in the hospital. Hopefully tomorrow, he will receive a  PICC line (a peripherally inserted central catheter) where he will receive IV antibiotics for the next two weeks. Once he is discharged (maybe Tuesday), he will be able to go to the outpatient clinic to receive the IV antibiotics (the infusions will be twice a day, for two hours at a time). However, they won't discharge him until his blood cultures have been negative for 72 hours and he is symptom-free.

I know that everyone has a million questions, especially relating to what this does to the transplant timing. I don't have a lot of answers right now. The doctors are too focused on getting Parrish through this infection. I do know that he has to complete the antibiotics course and have negative cultures once off of antibiotics in order to be transplant eligible. In addition, we know that the stem cells collected a couple weeks ago are negative for any infection (they are cultured immediately upon collection). So, that is good news. 

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers over the last few days. I'll keep updating as I have more news. 

Love,

Molly