No bleed in brain, but infection in blood

Family and Friends,

For the good news, Bob's blood counts have shot up to 8.4 and 31,000 for the hemoglobin and platlets which is good. They also did a CT scan last night to see if Bob was bleeding in his brain due to his lack of waking up timely, and the preliminary tests came back negative. Yesterday morning they took Bob off the sedation and they were waiting for him to wake up and be responsive. Bob's uncle Tommy came to visit him last night and after 12 hours he opened his eyes, and started shaking his head to try to get the tube out. Although he couldn't respond to commands like "squeeze my hand", he did respond to Uncle Tom's voice. They had to resedate him last night so they could perform the CT.

Since it wasn't a bleed in the brain that was causing Bob not to wake up for such a long period of time, they believe it was due to the fact that his kidney and liver function has gone south. I am going to speak with the kidney doctor this morning to see if they will put him on dialysis. In addition, right after they resedated him last night, he spiked a fever of 102. They were able to control it by this morning however.

The bad news is that Bob has a systemic Fungemia in his blood. This blood infection is very serious. The infectious disease doctor took samples of Bob's blood this morning to grow in a petri dish to see which antibiotics will kill the infection. Also known as an "opportunistic" infection or systemic candidiasis, it is a grave overgrowth condition where Candida penetrates into the deeper areas of the body. It occurs when candida evolves from its normal state of yeast to become a type of fungus invading the blood circulation, liver and urinary tract.Upon systemic yeast infection happening, Candida starts to invade all body parts and organs, including the digestive system, respiratory system, eyes, liver, esophagus, skin and blood. There is no single cause for systemic yeast infection, which can be provoked by different internal situations, including a compromised immune system, deficient white blood corpuscles (granulocytopenia), and the loss of benign bacteria.

Bob is far from being out of the woods, but I believe he is getting there slowly. Everyone knows he's a fighter.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who has been donating to Bob's medical expenses. I just started to send out thank you cards. All the help is so appreciated.

Please keep the prayers coming for Bob,
Michele