Please pray we get released from the hosptial tomorrow. That storm is supposed to be coming Monday night-Tuesday. I really don't want to be snowed in here! **Winter storm watch in effect Monday through Tuesday** One of the worst winter storms in years takes aim on the Ohio Valley. The areas that see all snow could end up with well over a foot. At this point the heavy snow band looks to set up just north of I-70.
This is Alex, not happy because Mommy put him back in bed. We do have another picture of Happy Alex…you'll see in that, aside from all the things on his feet, he looks fine. (I decided to put the sad one up so he'd get your sympathy. If you click on the link and look at the happy one, I have notes that explain things like which foot is the 'bad' foot.) He really looks & acts fine most of the time. He seems to tire earlier and wants to be held more as well as being more easily frustrated now over not being able to roll over in bed or (when he's awake) not being able to crawl or pull himself up. Mommy is happy with the idea of being able to go home tomorrow, not Tuesday. We shall see. I'm not as thrilled with the idea of giving him antibiotics, but that's fine.
Another positive thing (aside from all the ones James has said earlier)–they caught the infection before there was any damage to the bone (which can happen between 10-14 days..we were probably on day 11 when we brought him in).
Dr. Zipes (hospital Dr.) and Dr. Belcher (the Infectious Disease Dr. who looks like Jimmy Johnson) finally got together with Dr. Didilo (surgeon) to decipher his notes. They decided that there really WAS a bone infection and that Alex will need to be on three weeks of antibiotics.
The plan is to install a PIC IV in his arm tomorrow. This will allow us (by us I mean, Tina) to administer the antibiotics from home. Dr. Belcher's office is about 20 blocks down the road (by road I mean, highway). This will allow us to pickup the antibiotics from his office and get info from them and not have to rely on a home health care service and we won't have to drive down to the hospital (about 15 minutes away). (its so nice to no longer live in the "sticks", or a town that is situated in the "sticks.") (This is Tina adding in a large AMEN to that! I was thinking of that when we kept going back/forth, how much easier this is to be 15 min. from the big hospital, not 45).
The goal and hope is that they will put the PIC in tomorrow morning. They will need to put him under again since it is more then a little prick. Apparently they put a catheter in the vein in his arm up into a vein in his shoulder. This is a more "robust" IV so it should last 3 weeks without needing to be replaced. (Or so they hope.) He will need to recover from the sedation and then we can go home. That should be Monday evening or Tuesday morning. I (and by I, I mean WE) vote for Monday evening. We have a Valentines dinner Tuesday night that we just can't miss. 
Thank you for ALL your prayers and support. God is a GREAT and we appreciate having the family he has given to us. This experience has proved to Tina that we finally found a church we can call home. Thank you Faith and Intersection.
Tina let me stay the night with Alex last night. She needed to get a good nights sleep so she slept at home. I camped out on the "sofa"? bed.
The night went well. He had a couple more rounds of antibiotics and fluids in his IV. Since he has had problems with his IV's his IV would enclude(sp?). This morning they had to flush out the IV so that they could get this mornings round of antibiotics in.
His main doctor came in and was pleased with how well he is doing. The Dr. said that he wants to get the Infectious Disease guy, the surgeon and himself all together so that they can come up with a game plan. Later the surgeon came in to check on Alex. Alex recognized him and tried climbing up me to get away from him. Alex was not happy to see him at all. He gave me the same low down he gave Tina stating that they found fluid in the ankle but it wasn't 'yucky pussy.' When he looked at the bone he saw a layer was off the bone indicating an infection. He said he put a stint in it to allow it to drain. He will remove that tomorrow. He says it just slides out.
We now have conflicting opinions. The disease guy says that it isn't a bone infection yet the surgeon thinks it was or is. The disease guys says that we would just need oral antibodies; however the surgeon says he will still need IV for a few more days. Not three weeks like we thought at first but longer the disease guy thinks. I say that they all need to get on a conference call together and get on the same page.
They just finished his latest round of antibiotic and are flushing the IV. Once that is done the nurse will "DC" him and we can then go hang out in the play room. Get him out of this cabin feverish room.
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