Baby Maverick

They were able to stabilize litte Mav pretty quickly last night. He has responded well to the treatment and has weaned off the nor-epi. He's just on a small amount of epi. They've restarted his feedings at a lower amount. They think he has endocarditis - an infection in his heart. They could see "vegetation" on his tricuspid valve. That means they see a clump of something on the valve separating the upper and lower chambers of the right side of his heart - probably some kind of bacteria or fungus. They have sent blood cultures to figure out exactly what they're dealing with. They will repeat a heart echo tomorrow and see how it looks. Dr. M came in and spoke with Greg last night and said that this is treatable - it just takes 4-6 weeks of antibiotics. If he regains his strength and is able to wean off the ventilator before then he can go home on antibiotics. They had to go back up on his ventilator during all this. The nephrologist came in today and said maybe this infection is what has been keeping him from mobilizing the fluid (the swelling in his arms and legs). He has been putting a lot out of his dialysis catheter today and they've had to slow down on that. He's back on two hour dwell times for now. He's still a sick little boy, but we're encouraged he's responded so well and so quickly. For my medical friends, his CRP and wbc went down today - yea! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers - love you all - jc