Saturday, February 2, 2008

Thank You Dr. Russ ;-)

While having lunch in the waiting room Dr. Russ Osguthorpe came in and found us. Generally its a bad thing when the Doc comes to find you. We were nervous until we stepped out of the room and he turned around w/ a little smile. We like smiling Dr's. The results of his lumbar puncture came back and it appears Charlie has beaten the bug! His new gram stain showed no more bacteria. Not even the left overs of dead ones which is what you'd expect to see. His white cell count was in the 400's and normal is about 10 but w/ a baby as sick as Charlie they were expecting it to be in the thousands. Lower white counts equate less inflamation. Lastly his glucose count that was so low they couldn't measure it in his first stain is now 38, normal is about 50. This is so very important because glucose is the food of the brain.


britton watched mom & dad talk to the dr.

He is still running high temps (104 last they checked) but they are expected until the inflamation goes down. They have added a new Rx called Keppra that hopefully will keep any further seizures at bay. I saw one of his seizures this morning and it nearly killed me. Besides all the twitching he gets this really sad face and his bottom lip starts to quiver and he looks like he's crying. Tears soon come and then dad looses it. One of the hardest things I've had to see here. After his 3rd seizure today he had another EEG but it didn't show any further activity or what they call sub-clinical seizures.
The news from Dr. Russ allowed us to take a sigh of relief but now I'm having to remind myself that we still have a very sick boy (still Critical) on our hands. So much damage has been done to his little thinker we just hope it doesn't get any worse. We are still praying for a miracle.


rob, going crazy from the sitting around??

snuggling with mom in the waiting room watching power rangers.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Finally some good news. I am sure his little lip quiver would be enough to break anyone's heart especially his parents. We are still praying for you and hoping for even more good news.
Love,
Paige

Megan and Alyvia said...

You guys hang in there!! I can tell your little boy is a fighter!! (Livie once seized for 2 hrs in the PICU, it was horrible to watch and even more horrible knowing there's nothing you can do for them.)
What a ride you guys have had!! The PICU is such a roller coaster.

I am glad to hear Charlie's counts are looking better.

I love this quote: "Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it."
I think it fits not only Charlie, but his brave parents too.

Anonymous said...

This is great! I am so happy for ya all...... Jill B

THE COX FAMILY said...

Yeah! It makes me so happy to hear this good news.

Katie Jo said...

no matter what the age of the person having the seizure, it is ALWAYS hard to watch! Even more so when it is someone that you love, and you know that their is nothing that you can do for them!!! I can't imagine having to watch my child have a seizure!!! I've been watching Darin have seizures for over 5 years now, and it never gets any easier!

Anonymous said...

Hip Hip Hurray!! I am so happy for you all. We will be down late tonight and be up tomorrow morning. Hope is excited to see Britt. We all want to be there for Charlie.
Love,
Stefanie

Marilee said...

So grateful for the updates and the photos. I quote the great Number 5 from Short Circuit-"input, input"!
(Just really dated myself with that movie reference. Probably nobody under 30 knows what I'm talking about)
Anyway, thanks for the input.

Charlie Cooper said...

marilee - im under 30 (just barely) and i know all about johnny 5.
-meg

Marilee said...

Meg, that is because you had outstanding upbringing. Number 5 IS alive!

Sleep well Charlie Cooper and no more seizures if you please. I hate to see grown men cry.