I know, I know...you're in shock. Another update already? Yes, unfortunately, Atticus has had a little set back in the healing process. A few days ago, I noticed that Atticus' wound had gotten a little "weepy". Not one to be an alarmist, I covered it with some gauze and taped it up in order to keep it dry so that it could continue to heal. On Monday, I went to change his gauze, and saw something pretty awful. Between the two stitches, where Dr Bradley had mentioned the skin was thin due to the previous chest wire/lump, the skin had literally torn leaving a small hole in Atticus' chest roughly the size of a pencil eraser. I'm not 100% sure how it happened. I think it was a combination of the 2 stitches pulling in opposite directions as they healed, the surgical glue pulling on the site of thin skin as it flaked off, and/or the skin "collapsed" as it healed because there was a literal cavity under it where the granulated tissue had been before they removed it. I called down to Dr B's office, explained what was going on, and sent them some pictures of the site. They quickly called back after seeing the photos and asked how fast I could get Atticus to Charleston. *sigh*
Atticus and I were on the road after a few hours, after I had packed us up and Dad had a chance to run to the grocery store to stock up for him and the older two kiddos, since we didn't know how long we'd be gone. We arrived at MUSC a little after 7PM, and began the check-in process.
Thankfully, Atticus was admitted to the "step-down" unit so I can stay in the room with him (versus the PCICU, where I can't). The doctors came and took a culture sample from the hole in his chest to test for infection. Then we had blood drawn, an IV placed, an EKG, and antibiotics started. They covered his wound with some dry gauze, which made me feel a little better since that's exactly what I had done. It was roughly 2AM by the time everything was done, so Atticus and I were beyond exhausted.
Tuesday morning, Dr Bradley finally had a chance to come assess the wound. The good news was that it didn't look like Atticus would need another surgery, which meant he could finally eat again. Yay! The bad news was that we would have to stay here for a while, so they could watch it heal, and wait on the results from the culture. I asked how long he thought we would be here, and Dr B replied, "At least 5 days to a week." Yikes! That was not what I expected, but I also understand why we need to stay. For once, my over packing will prove useful! Later that day, we received a little more good news that the initial blood work didn't show signs of infection.
That leads to today. Atticus has thankfully remained pleasant and energetic throughout everything. The doctors rounded this morning, and that's when we got a little more bad news...the initial culture results showed signs of a Staph infection. (Noooooo!) They still weren't exactly sure which kind; the culture needs to continue to grow some more, but I heard "possible Cellulitus" being used. We're still waiting on Dr Bradley's assessment today because he's been in a surgery all morning. I'm hoping that since we had already started antibiotics, we hopefully got a jump start on fighting off this infection.
On a slightly brighter note, the other doctors are all really happy with the way the wound is healing, that Atticus hasn't come down with a fever, and that he remains so energetic. We've still got a lot of healing to do. I'll continue to update as we find out more about what's going on. In the meantime, I'm asking everyone to continue to keep us in your prayers! All prayers, well wishes, happy thoughts, etc are welcomed at this point. Thankfully God continues to provide for everything we need through way of awesome friends, family, and a dedicated team of doctors and nurses. I'll leave off for now with a picture of Atticus playing with an awesome light up sword given to him by the folks in the Children's Atrium, since he can't go down there to play right now because of the infection. As always, keep on prayin'!!
