Road Block

Poor little Ben has been through so much this week already, and now a minor road block.

Ben started being out of sorts late day yesterday. His pain meds didn't seem to be doing much for him. His anti-inflammatory (Toradol) was discontinued in the morning so I thought maybe that was why.

Ben spent most of the day awake but not himself. Dr.Hong came in and turned the screws while Ashley was with him. He really didn't seem that bad even though he didn't seem comfortable.

After Ashley and Harrison left for Ronald McDonald House, I sat with Ben watching TV. I noticed that he kept trying to rub his NG tube out and was hitting his hardware and incision. The sound he was making can only be described as something between a whimper and a yelp. I notice everything looked really red. I tried to pass it off as irritation where the screws had been turned not long before. Within the hour I noticed there was some drainage from around his right external screw. I was concerned about infection, so I ring the nurse. She was able to start ibuprofen and would leave a "note" for the doctors to have a look at it in the morning.

There was a concern about infection from the doctors stand point as well. Ben has been started on IV antibiotics. Dr Hong said he would also make arrangements for some additional IV pain medication although that hasn't started yet.

Hopefully after a couple more days the turning process will be complete and the infection will be under control. It certainly isn't a bad infection however that's not to say if it was let go it couldn't become one. Fingers crossed this will all be behind us soon.