UCSF Day 9: March 22

Amazingly, tomorrow will be five weeks since Peter was first hospitalized. From such an innocuous start to all he has been through. Today, fevers continue with no identifiable source- so we are doing a full fever work-up today. Cultures of everything, blood, sputum, etc. doppler studies of blood vessels in arms and legs to look for cloth, an ultrasound of heart to rule out endocarditis (valve infection). And the scariest test, CT of chest to rule out blood clots in the lungs and abdomen to rule out infection in abdomen. They want to use contrast which scares me in light of our recent brush with renal failure. While acknowledging need, I am alone in San Francisco being asked to make decisions that can have serious impact on his recovering kidneys. Quick call to Art in Salinas to make sure we are in agreement- we will allow the contrat study and mom will hold her breath pending tomorrows lab work. The good news of the day- Peter s more awake. He actually sat on the side of the bed with physical therapy, ventilator, chest tube and multiple drains and all. And before we left for the night, he tried to hug us both. Not quite possible with all equipment so I asked him to blow me a kiss- and he did. Maybe mom will sleep better tonight - even though she is worried about those pesky kidneys!