1/19 A Little Action

We were getting so used to the same old thing Josie decided to spice things up a little bit today. A fever of 102.9° and a high heart rate of 180bpm prompted another battery of blood cultures. It also ended the short run of days with no antibiotics. They decided to put her on a three-day regimen of Vancomycin while we wait for cultures to grow. If nothing grows after 72 hours then they’ll stop the drug. There doesn’t seem to be anything which has changed but her we are again in a puzzling situation…but not too bad.

Today she had her weekly dose of steroids and her weekly dose of IVIG. The steroids are really interesting because shortly after she gets the dose she’s bouncing off the walls. So she was feeling great this afternoon and evening. She was up walking around again…and the walking is coming along quickly. Her confidence is growing with each successful series of steps. It’s sure nice to see.

We’re seeing a couple things not so good though. First there are some little purple spots which look like ink splatters on Josie’s hands. They’re kind of hard to see and I tried to take a picture of them for your enjoyment. Not sure what those are all about but we should learn something tomorrow. Also her nail fold capillaries started to flair just a little today too. Nothing startling, but more Dermatomyositis activity. We’ll have to keep a close eye on that. We certainly do not want a big flare before the big surgery.