Still Imprisoned in the Tower!

Shall we name him Rapunzel?  Early this morning (before 6am), one of the doctors on Dr. Holt's surgery team came in to talk with us.  Her team usually comes in early so I wasn't surprised.  But we were surprised to hear that Woody wouldn't be dismissed today.  Results had come back from testing bone fragments, etc. had come back and his bacteria had been identified.  And, the ID wasn't exactly what we wanted to hear. It is MRSA.  He will be on IV antibiotics for 6 or more weeks and then on long term oral antibiotics.  He will be able to have the IV antibiotics at home.  Now they are trying to figure out the dosage that his kidneys can tolerate.  He will have a blood draw at 6pm and they will see how his kidneys are responding to the antibiotics (which he had been getting since shortly after surgery).

Of course, most of us recoil at the mention of MRSA.  The infectious disease team has been called in and I guess we will be adding them to appointments at Vanderbilt.  Anyone entering the room is now garbed in blue gowns and gloves.

When anyone asks him how he is doing, Woody always says "fair to middlin'."  Fair to middlin' is a cotton term...the way cotton is graded: good, fair, middlin', and poor.  So "fair to middlin'" puts "things" in the middle.  Today the infectious disease doctor said that there are many more infections
much worse than MRSA...that MRSA is now a "fair to middlin'" infection.  We're not totally
convinced!  Woody said he didn't find them saying that comforting!

He was supposed to have PT today, but, I guess it being Sunday, they are running on more of a skeletal crew...anyway, Woody's PT didn't happen.  He still isn't supposed to get up by himself so we checked with his nurse and he helped him get up and sit in a chair.  While Woody was out of the bed, his bed got changed.  Woody did get back into bed with only me stabilizing his walker.  I'm having trouble imagining him handling the walk into the house when we get home with no more moving around than he has done so far since surgery.  Also he will have been sitting for 70 miles for the trip home.  Hoping they get him up and moving around the room a bit more tomorrow!  He needs to build
his strength back up!