Hospital Day 11
8:30am - Dr. Tangel informed Dianne that she was not going home today so this was disappointing.
Dr. Manion came to check on Dianne's bladder pain. They did talk about the different medications that she has tried and mentioned starting a couple old medications that Dianne has taken in the past and didn't work, and also gave her horrible side effects. They didn't really come up with a new plan for the pain other than tylenol or ibuprofen, but he does want to see her again in a few weeks once she is out of the hospital.
Dr. Cagan informed us that Dianne will probably get to go home tomorrow. He says that Dr. Gill is still working to find the appropriate antibiotic for the lung infection. He mentioned that she has been on her oral antibiotics for a few days now and that should cover her until they can get the new antibiotic. He did give her a new prescription for her bladder, something that will dissolve under the tongue and she can take it as needed. She had mentioned how it has become a disruption in life, having to plan out where bathrooms are when running errands or on trips. This medication that he added should help her manage the urgency and some of the pain with associated with the bladder. She won't start using this until she is out of the hospital.
10:30am - Dr. Gill popped in and went over her bladder meds, as well as checking in with everything else. She says that Dianne has been on the oral antibiotic since Tuesday so she says that she will have been on that for 48 today. We did get some clarification on the antibiotic situation. The current medication was for the staph infection that Dianne had last week. So as of now, she is currently not being treated for the new mycobacterium infection that they found. They have the St. Jude hospital lab working on growing the fungus and finding the correct antibiotics to eliminate it. Dr. Gill explained that they like to find 2 different types of antibiotics that will kill different strands of the fungus. This particular growth likes to mutate and that is how it is able to continue to linger in most patients. So if they are able to find a couple strands of antibiotics to address multiple mutations they hope to be able to kill it off entirely. Gill did confirm that as of now, she is not being treated for the fungus and won't until they formulate the correct antibiotic. This could be within the next 2 weeks. Dr. Gill did say that she could stop the antibiotics for the staph infection today. They are wanting to keep her in a bit longer to make sure that she doesn't go home and crash within a few hours, like she has done in the past.
So hopefully tomorrow she will be out! And within the next week she should be able to start the antibiotics to get rid of this infection for good.
