Friday 2nd Update

Will came back from his procedure a little while ago. He did ok... he is a little bit sicker, which is expected. They had to start him on epi and give him fluid to help him maintain his blood pressure. Since Will got some more fluid he is more swollen. They have also put Will on a fentanyl drip for pain. The ventilators don't work as well in the OR, and because of that Will came on high settings... rate of 50 and oxygen at 60%. His blood gasses have been getting better so hopefully later tonight that can begin weaning. The docs expect him to be sicker over the next 24 hours, but hopefully things will improve.

The drain that they installed is pretty much like a chest tube, but the catheder is smaller and kind of coils up underneath the incision. It drains out just like a regular chest tube.

This morning the neurosurgery team decided to tap Will's reservoir on his head so that they could get some cultures of his spinal fluid. So far it hasn't grown any bacteria, but the white blood cell count is up. When I asked how high the count was, the doc said that it was 1,600, but the count is different from blood. Apparently, you are not supposed to have any white blood cells in your spinal fluid. So, it may be that Will does have an infection in his spinal fluid. This is very troubling to us, and it may be as long as 72 hours (Monday morning) before they can say for sure whether or not he has an infection.

I'll continue to keep everyone posted on Will's condition.