Sunday July 8, 2012

The Wimbledon Men's tennis final will take place today and yes, my man Roger Federer gets a chance for another grand slam title, this time against England's favorite son, Andy Murray.  Should be a good match and a good story either way.

Last year we watched the men's final from the Pediatric Infusion Treatment Center at St. Mary's where Shannon was receiving IV fluids to help her rebound from post radiation sickness.  This year, it's my turn to be in a hospital bed with the IV hopefully doing it's trick.

The first couple of days here in the hospital have really been focused on getting the pain under control.  The CT scan showed that the infection has stayed contained on the right side of my face/jaw so far.  We need to keep it that way.

Finding the right mixture if pain meds was a process but we've gotten things down from an excruciating throbbing pain to a dull ache, so that's progress.  I have a handy dandy morphine pump that I can activate every ten minutes with the push of a button.

I have had blood draws and blood cultures being done to try and determine how best to treat this infection.  Yesterday, as a result of exams and testing, my antibiotic was switched to Unasyn, which is a cocktail of drugs known to be very effective against infections in the mouth.  The hope is to keep the rest of my teeth in tact but that's not a given.  A procedure may be performed to open up the site and clean it out again which would also allow them to gather some tissue to put into culture.

So, for the time being, St. Mary's is my home.  Teams of doctors from oral surgery and infectious disease are on the case.  Grandma and Papa Harkins came down from up north to be here with us for a few days.  Not easy for parents to see their child in a hospital bed.  Dan and Erin are hanging in there.  Not easy to see your wife or mother in a hospital bed, either.

So, more drugs, more rest, and go Roger...