Worst Day 1.1

Update on yesterday: The problems of this first of the worst days have not gone away. I forgot all about the white cell blood count. White blood cells, of course, attack infections in the body. When they increase, that is a sign that there is an infection. Kay’s white blood count had gone up following the surgery, so in addition to being told to walk and use the incentive spirometer, she was also given antibiotics. Her CT scan showed, in the end, no leakage or abscesses anywhere in her gut, so they supposed the white blood count and the clearing of the throat she had been doing might indicate the onset of pneumonia or atalectesis (the “external compression of her lungs by fluids used during the operation” that I referenced in the last post). A night of the diuretic, with the dissipation of the fever the next day indicated it had been the atalectesis after all.

This issue has come back up, however, and the diagnosis seems to have been wrong, or at least incomplete. Kay’s throat clearing has continued, turning into a cough, deep and regular, but productive of no phlegm. Her temperature, having fluctuated all week, has gone up to 101.6, which is quite high, and her white blood cell count is high again, I believe for the third time since the surgery. There are two possibilities, one being that she has come down with pneumonia, which at this point would be a good thing. The worse alternative is that she has some kind of abdominal abscess or infection or inflammation (not sure how mutually in- or exclusive these things are), for which reason the follow-up procedure is going to go on as planned, if not sooner. They’ve ordered another chest x-ray and a CT scan to explore both possibilities, and if something abdominal is indicated, they’ll go in today, instead of tomorrow as planned. (In this case, the coughing proceeds from something else entirely, and is a secondary worry.)