Update #76 on Kevin

The last two days, Kevin has had less secretions. That is something that may come and go, but right now it is gone, so we are thankful. His last X-Ray looked really good, other than a elevated diaphragm on the right lung side. It was probably caused by trauma to the right lung and keeps him from breathing really deeply on the right side, that isn’t a huge issue however, some people live with only one lung. They took new X-Rays today of Kevin’s lungs, so later we’ll see where things are at on that.


Last night, the infection specialist ended Kevin’s antibiotics. He had been on a drip antibiotic to ward against infection in his lungs. His eye antibiotics ended over the weekend. It still looks red, so his main doctor here is having it taped shut. The eye specialist didn’t want it patched because the gauze could get into the eye and irritate it further, but the tape sits only across it, with no real way to get down into the eye.

Yesterday, I wrote that Kevin had a temperature, but and here’s where things get crazy….even though he had a temperature on his forehead with our optical thermometer, the axillary temp under his arm was not showing a temp at all. Was it then just a neurologically localized fever? Basically, what I mean is, is his brain allowing higher temps in certain areas of his body? If part of his brain that was injured controls thermoregulation (the ability of the body to keep its own body temperature within certain boundaries) could that show in various readings around the body?

This week we saw the return of a lung doctor that we had a particularly easy time understanding and dealing with (the lung doctors are here for a week every five to six weeks). She was really happy with Kevin’s progress and told him so. We talked about capping his trach and she said there were benefits to capping it. She told us that one thing that can happen if CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) levels are too high in the blood is that there can be muscle spasms. So, she put in an order for Kevin to be capped specifically so that after a few hours they can do a blood gas test. This is the test that shows levels of gasses in your blood. We will be most interested in the level of CO2 in his blood. He is currently capped and sitting in his blue neuro chair. His heart rate is only 110-112, which is good for sitting in the chair. I also have some TV shows on the portable DVD player. He’s getting to watch one of our new favorites, Community. He has had some various jerks and movements, but not the prolonged muscle reflex spasms which we have seen previously.

Thanks for praying and reading,
Matt, Angie and family
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