Improvement! Day 5

I emailed the clinical trial tech at MU for an update on Linus:

Dear MrsLacubrious,

I was just down in ICU looking at Linus, he seems to be doing much better today. His temp is down to 102.8, he is still ataxic, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. He pulled Lorie around this morning when she took him out for his walk. He did tolerate the rest of his plasma transfusion. I think that the worst is behind us. I will check with Dr. Selting when I see her this morning about repeating a CBC on him today to see if his platelets are rebounding yet.

He is sleeping like a baby now. I’m sure he’s exhausted he had a bad day yesterday.

I’ll keep you posted on how he’s doing.

DT



*******UPDATE FROM LORIE***********

Linus was alert and walking although still somewhat wobbly. He went outside and did his "thing". They gave him his medicine wrapped in some ham which he took but when they offered him dog food he turned away. So they fed him Vienna sausages! He ate those but later on vomited, probably due to the sausages! He's not used to that type of food! Anyhow, they're going to continue giving him fluids and monitor him overnight. The neurologist still see that he has some neurological deficits but he is brighter and more alert than yesterday so we're hopeful he'll continue to improve.

If they release him tomorrow we're considering just going up to Columbia and staying Saturday night and Sunday night so we can cut out some driving and be ready to take him back in on Monday for his clinical trial evaluation. It would be nice to bring him home though if even for a little while...


*******ANOTHER UPDATE FROM LORIE***********

So Linus just went outside again and seemed to enjoy the nice weather for awhile but eventually stopped walking and just stood in one place. They gave him something called Cerenia to help control the nausea. They plan on offering him food again at 5pm. Then they will monitor him this evening and run more blood tests in the morning. I emailed Debbie Tate, the clinical trial coordinator, to let her know that soft foods are what we had Linus on this last month. So now he probably prefers them. The ataxia is still present. Lorie said he walks like he's drunk which fits in nicely with our crowd (LOL). Seriously, we hope that the ataxia will wane as he gets better and is certainly something we can cope with.