We got word today that the strain of flu that Caden has is H1N1 (Swine Flu). We do not know where he got it from as he does not get out much. Maybe it was his visit to the immunologist last Monday but that is pure speculation. The treatment does not change as a result of beign H1N1 positive but the reactions from people can be quite interesting. For instance the Child Life group here at MUSC told Sherry that we could keep all the toys that Caden was loaned to play with because their policy required them to trash everything touched by a patient who was found to be H1N1 positive. Not sure if this has been the standard reaction to the flu every year at MUSC but I doubt it. There is a whole lot of mask wearing my most people who enter the room..except the actual doctors. They have been way more relaxed on the mask wearing thing. Sherry did notice that they tend to back away from Caden when he starts moving around. I am actually a little relieved that the labs came back positive for H1N1. The initial statistics show that this year’s H1N1 (swine flu) has been less deadly than previous year’s run of the mill flu. If you are going to have flu then you want to have a strain that is less severe right?
Caden came very close to getting discharged today, but he is still needing a little oxygen to keep is saturation levels up when sleeping. His respirations are a little fast and deep as well which means he is working a little harder than normal to breath even when on oxygen. He has been doing beautifully without oxygen when he is awake. He was sitting up and playing and smiling quite a bit. The only other bad element to his current condition is that his stools have been straight liquid. Changing a diaper or pull up has been an ordeal. Not sure how we will handle that one at home.
We hope that tomorrow will bring us closer to discharge. We are being cautious, more so than normal. Maybe it is a tad bit of the fear creeping in form the other folks round us who are overreacting in such dramatic fashion, but none the less we are moving slowly to keep from getting rushed into a discharge.
Caden got another set of Rocephin injections tonight and is sleeping peacefully.  He is on less than a liter of oxygen while sleeping. He has been dipping into the 80’s on his O2 sats while sleeping without oxygen. Stay tuned via Twitter or Facebook as I will be updating there first as things change.