Tentative Schedule…hopefully.
Dr. Hirsch stopped by today and laid out a tentative schedule for Evan. Two weeks on antibiotics (from the day that the pacemaker was removed, last Wednesday), new pacemaker placed, and then some time recovering and being monitored before we go home. That would put us home sometime the week of Labor Day. It’s still a couple weeks away but it sure sounds better than the 6-8 weeks that I anticipated we were going to be here.
Also today occupational therapy, physical therapy, and infectious disease all stopped by for a consultation. For OT, there really isn’t anything that they can tell us or do for us that we don’t already know to do from our OT back home so we’ll start working on those things here. For PT, they brought us a nice mat so that we can play on the floor with Evan. Since Evan is just now becoming really active and mobile we’re afraid what the next surgery will hold for his progress when Dr. Hirsch has to cut into him in two more/different places to make room for the new pacemaker and leads while staying away from where the infection may still be residing. The physical therapist said to really work him hard now while he’s able, get him used to the movements and such and it will hopefully reduce the ‘lost time’ due to the surgery. Infectious disease came by to assess what the doctors had decided on antibiotics, course length, etc. They removed one of the two antibiotics that Evan was on (Tobramycin), saying that it didn’t really provide anything extra that the Zosyn was not already providing based on the studies of Evan’s cultures. Tobramycin is an antibiotic that requires regular blood draws to check the levels in the body, so discontinuing that one is not such a bad thing.
Mom took Evan to the courtyard for a nice walk today. If you’ve been following us since the beginning you might recognize this courtyard from Evan’s first trip outside. (second trip might look more familiar) It will be a year next week since Evan went for his first adventure outside. Time really does fly. To look at pictures of him then and now, I cannot believe how much he’s grown. These pictures are not a great representation but it was the best I could find at 1AM, click on it for a larger view.