Come out, come out wherever you are...

Sorry for the delayed post but I have been gone most of the day while Aunt Paige (from Pheonix) had some bonding time with the little guy. Charlie had several tests done today in order to figure out this dang fever. He had his blood cultured, snot cultured, and urine cultured (which involved a catheter), all of which were unpleasant and came back negative. So, that only left one more fluid in his little body to culture---his brain fluid (CSF). The neurosurgery resident came in and inserted a needle in his head where the tube comes out to get a sample. It didn’t seem to hurt Charlie very bad because Rob said he just moved his feet. The first report is that it looks clear (if you watch “House” on TV clear means it’s not infected- but as we have found out this is not necessarily true in real life). She also mentioned that the pressure must be OK because the fluid just dripped into the syringe slowly. We will take any good news no matter how small---right? We will find out in the morning what the gram stain looks like and then they will culture the sample of fluid for the usual 48 hours. His oxygen has been dropping a little so he has been put back on 1L of O2 through a nasal canula (tube in his nose) instead of the blowby (funnel shaped thing by his head). The respiratory therapist was called in to do a more thorough suction and she said he has a weak gag reflex and even coughed some. His coloring is a little paler and he has been sleeping a lot. Good news is that he has only had one storm today because he has been so sleepy and all the tests so far are negative for infection. Bad news is the tests so far are negative for infection and he still has a fever. I was really hoping to find an infection elsewhere so we didn't have to look in the brain.