Dad's hospitalization, update #2

Hello all,
Yesterday evening I stopped in to pay a visit to the Old Man. He was already entertaining Mom and Greg and seemed to be in good spirits. I learned a bit more about his infection and how it got started. He said that one day he got an itch in the corner of his eye. He idly scratched at it gently, and it went away for a little while. Later though he felt it itching again and scratched at it some more. As this went on through the evening he felt the area around his eye swell a little. By the next day it had swollen all over the top of his eye. At that time he was receiving daily visits from a home nurse. When she saw it she declared that they needed to keep an eye on it (no pun intended I'm sure). The next day the swelling had spread all around his eye and she promptly called the doctor and arranged for him to go into the hospital that same day.

The swelling continued to worsen over the next two days. The physicians thought that the infection was cellulitus caused by an infected tooth. The following day they removed a bad tooth, but the infection did not go down. They took some samples away to perform some lab tests, but the results would not be available for a day or two. Meanwhile they were growing concerned that the swelling might affect his hearing permanently, so they were getting ready to do some more surgery on his left ear. No one was in favor of that choice, so we were all relieved when the lab finally delivered the results the same day he was scheduled for surgery.

The lab positively identified the infection as a tough resistant strain of staphyloccocus bacteria that will require a lengthy course of antibiotic treatment to eliminate. They began administering the treatment immediately and are keeping him in the hospital for observation. In order for the treatment to be effective it must be delivered consistently and aggressively, and treatments are expected to continue for as long as six months. It is a powerful antibiotic and is risky to administer to a diabetic patient. It must be given with special regard to his blood sugar level so as not to overwhelm his liver. Therefore the staff must take a blood sample before the treatment, and then take another one immediately afterward. This process will need to continue after he is released from the hospital, which may occur later this week if all goes well.

Once he is home it is likely that he will need to have a pik line inserted through his vein and into his heart to simplify the administration of the antibiotic. He is unhappy about this prospect, as he just had the last one removed not too long ago. But we are hoping that it will not prove necessary.

Here is a photo of his eye that shows the reduction in swelling. The dark scabs you see above and below his eye appeared shortly after the swelling began. They are beginning to heal and slough away, and hopeful will disappear soon.

We remain hopeful that the swelling will soon pass, but due to the complications brought on by his diabetic condition the infection will take a long time to heal.

I thought you should also see the foot that was the source of his last hospitalization. It was well on its way to healing when this setback occurred, and as you can see it has some sort of scabbing from infection.

With any luck it will resume healing with course of antibiotics.

And finally here is a picture of mother with one of the very attentive nursing staff members.

Mom seems to be handling everything ok, but I can tell that she is worrying about dad. In spite of it all she spends much of her time cracking jokes and - as usual - asking about the nurse's children and such. Dad is getting a fairly steady stream of visitors, and not just family. He greatly appreciates everyone's calls and concern, and sends everyone his love.

Regards,
Jed