Thought I would update this ongoing saga...

Harry came home from the hospital after a week long stay. The decision was to forgo surgery for the time being and see if the infection and wound can heal with IV antibiotics for four weeks, followed by oral antibiotics for an undetermined time.

As you predicted, Christine, he now has a picc line. He is on an IV pump and a nurse comes once a day to refill it. They taught me how to disconnect the IV line between infusions, so he isn't tethered to the pump all the time. I have to be sure the connections are kept as sterile as possible and the IV line is flushed every time he disconnects.

He is not allowed to put anything in his mouth except water and pills until the hole in his mouth closes. So, he also had a peg tube put in last week. This is his second time on a peg. We are happy to have it so he can maintain good nutrition. His gastroenterologist told us tonight to add MCT (medium chain triglycerides) to his Ensure to help him to regain the lost weight.

The home health nurse got a very low blood pressure reading this morning, which was unusual for him. He had just been standing for awhile. She did some further readings while he sat, and then while he stood, and she found that he has orthostatic hypotension, which is greatly lowered blood pressure while standing. The gastroenterologist advised us to add a very small amount of salt to his Ensure to help with that. Of course, we will have to alert his cardiologist.

We went to the HBO doctor today to see about having more HBO treatment, as the Oral Surgeon thought that further HBO treatments might help with the hole closing. We have to wait to see if this will be approved by Medicare, because he has already had a number of HBO treatments.

In the meantime, his jaw is red and very sore. Before the surgery, he had infection, pain and a broken jaw. Now, he had infection, pain and a hole in his mouth. So far, he traded a broken jaw for a hole. It is discouraging because we were expecting a better trade than this. But, hopefully, the hole will close up and the infection will go away with some more time. If not, the only other option is more surgery, which both the doctors and patient want to avoid.

I re-read your posts, Anita and Christine, about your experiences and they give me some hope that this will eventually work out in the end.

On and on it goes!

Anne