On Saturday night he had 103 fever, then Sunday they were able to keep it down to low grade all day, but by night-time it was back up at 103. Last night they had ice packs on him and he said his head was killing him and he just felt terrible. He woke up with 101.6 and had that most of the day. Then early this evening it seems the fever may have broke and he is now down at a low grade fever.
On Sunday the dr. had said that they thought it might be an infection so they gave him an antibiotic. Nurses told us that they will not release a patient until they are fever-free for 24 hours. However, this morning the partner in the practice with the surgeon that did Ken's operation swung by really quickly and told Ken he could go home. That now they think it is viral and they will send him home with the antibiotic to take. We were really, really surprised to hear this since he was running a fever at the time and we didn't think they would release a patient with a signficant fever.
He was told to wait for the pain management person to show up because they were supposed to give him some pain killers in oral form to replace the IV pump when he goes home. Which, I spoke to both doctors in the practice and asked them if they would first ween him off the IV pump and then start giving him the oral replacement drugs before leaving the hospital as a test to be sure they would be okay once he was home...and the both assured me, "Of course!" However, they have yet to ween him off the IV pump and they were ready to release him this morning. He is still using it and will probably be released tomorrow morning.
By this afternoon his fever was maintaining at 101.6 and they ordered for him to stay one more night. He does seem to be doing better tonight though, with the fever now down about 100. So it does seem that he will be coming home tomorrow.
I think that as long as he is able to manage the pain and that the fever is under control and not a danger or indication of something else more serious, that he will definitely start healing quickly once he is home.
I called the surgeon three times today asking to speak to either her or her partner, whoever could give me a few moments, but they never called me back. This has been a very frustrating experience!
Hopefully my next post will be titled....."Ken's Home!" :-)
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