Hi Everyone.  Sorry for the delay in an update.  I hesitated to write anything because most all the news was hurry up and wait and lots of speculating. 

When JT and Brian arrived in cincy Dr. Filipovich met them at the ER.  They finally admitted him late Thursday evening and did two punch biopsies Friday morning.  They did not initiate antibiotics as they wanted to wait and identify the infection and then start the proper antibiotics.  The initial stain of the biopsy showed both gram negative and gram positive infections, but the culture drawn (which is much more accurate) has only grown out staff infection so far (a gram positive infection).  Things were looking up Friday and there was even talk of letting JT go home on IV antibiotics.  Thank God that didn’t happen because Saturday JT’s arm (where he had the biopsy) started to swell, get red and feel tender to the touch.  The Infectious Disease department was called in as well as the Orthopedic Surgery team.  They didn’t really know what exactly was going on.  JT had no fever and his CBC was still normal.  Certainly the docs had the rarer conditions in the back of their minds and were very thorough about checking the status of his arm every hour.  By the evening the level of concern for the team of docs was high.  It was explained to Brian and me that this could be something called necrotizing fasciitis.  I don’t’ quite understand it all except that the swollen blood vessels were blocking the antibiotics from reaching the infection in his arm and that the risk if not treated immediately could be the loss of JT’s arm.   

Note: this is all happening around midnight.  UGH!  The head of the Orthopedic Surgery Department was on call and came to the hospital right away.  He took one look at JT’s arm and said, “we have to move now on this.”  As the operating room was being prepped the anesthesiology  team was getting JT ready.  By 1:00am JT was in emergency surgery.  Brian called me at 2:30am to tell me the surgery went well.  The doctor had to make 5 incisions on JT’s forearm and that they need to leave these incisions open for 4 days to allow for the healing of the infection.   He has a splint on this arm and it is wrapped in a sterile dressing.  For the next few days the surgery team will be watching the sites and changing the dressing twice a day.  JT and Brian are very tired and will be sleeping most of today.  JT is in some pain and required morphine today for relief.  It seems they caught the infection before it could do any permanent damage to JT’s muscles.  If emergency surgery had not been done, it is certain that irreparable damage would have been done by morning and JT would have lost his arm. We are extremely grateful for the incredible care our son continues to receive at Cincinnati Children’s.

Thanks for your prayers.  JT’s been a champ through it all but just keeps saying he wants to go home.