This morning at the hospital Dan is more comfortable and more mobile. He spent a seizure free night, and comments that the nice thing about ICU is the one on one attention.

He is ready to move to a regular room as soon as a bed is available.

The Infectious Diseases intern came by, and they (the ID team) are recommending some changes to the current antibiotics. The first day's cultures did show some growth, beta-hemolytic streptococcus... and other things that they are continuing to separate out and grow. Most probably he will have another picc line, with a home health nurse to check on him. There was a question of whether he would need a shunt to add antiobiotics directly to the site, as he had before. Since this was an "intern" conversation, we won't stress about that until the treatment plan gets higher up the food chain. There was also a question of using pennicllian G again... it is the best med for the situation, but also has potential to exacerbate seizures. In the end they decided to use that, and watch and see what happens.

At the moment (almost 1:30) Dan is resting with a t-shirt over his eyes (which we affectionately refer to as his "security blanket".)

And Dan comments, "Yesterday was hard because it was 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon, and I hadn't eaten all day. So, I was already pretty agitated and pretty upset when the surgery came around. And so, it was hard to connect with the energy to relax myself and to be with loving energy.

Today has been better in terms of .. um, I have slept a lot of today, and (pause to think and gather words)... and I still can't believe that this is going on.

I haven't regained the movement of my left arm and left ankle that I had regained after the surgery, and we are hoping that is due to the seizures, but only time will tell.

I am still really scared right now, and I haven't regained my balance. Saturday I was fine, Sunday I had multiple seizures, Wednesday I was having seizures... so, I am having trouble regaining my balance."

Dan wanted me to also relate that this episode of infection will delay further treatment. Since chemo will cause decline in immunity, it is contraindicated during this infection. And, in a related issue, we heard unofficially today that the 1p deletion test was "inconclusive" and we are awaiting a final official verdict.

That's all for now folks, thanks for hanging in and for sending loving energy to Dan and me in Boston and to Zac and Hana in Yellow Springs.
Love,
Abi and Dan