Day #8

Today Mark was started on a stronger antibiotic because of his fever. Because of the strength, it has the potential to be harmful to his kidneys, and they are watching that closely. For now, his kidney function has been great. His fluid input/output has been "perfect" in their words. As of this afternoon, his temp was down to 36 degrees Celsius. His heart rate has been great. (around 88-90) And his respirations are good as well. (Between 25-28 per minute.)
During the 1:00 visitation today he gave us a bit of a scare. His blood pressure dropped down to 78/38. Kim and I were back with him, and watched the monitors anxiously as we waited. They gave him 500mL of Albumin, infusing at the fastest rate they could, to increase his blood volume. After 10 minutes had passed, that wasn't enough, and they started him back on one of the BP meds he had previously been on. With our eyes glued to the monitor, we played the role of cheerleader as we watched the BP mean slowly go back up. It had been down near 58, and they wanted it at 70. "OK, we've got 59...can we get 60? 61? YAH! 65, 68 & 70!!! Way to go Mark!!!" Within 5 minutes of starting the meds he was back into the normal range again, and has been holding steady since. We joked with him that he stabilized because we were embarrassing him and he'd do anything to make us to stop.
He was also moving his legs during visitation today. I ask his nurse if it was involuntary movement or if he was consciously moving them. She said he was consciously moving them, that he heard us talking to him and was responding to let us know he knew we were there. (Or maybe he was running the marathon) : )