D39: Little Buddha

WBC 1.1
ANC 858

Ryan woke up this morning with an enormous belly. He has experienced a little abdominal distention in the past, but this was a full 26" of gut busting pressure. Cheryl said that it looked like her stomach at full-term pregnancy. It seemed unlikely that Ryan was 9 months pregnant, so the doctor considered some other alternatives. They decided to do a CT scan to get a good look at Ryan's organs (kidneys, lungs, and bladder in particular). Initial results from the CT were normal, so we're not looking at any major issues right now. They did find some 'gunk' in his lungs, so the doctor ordered respiratory therapy 3x day for the next couple of weeks. Ordinarily, they force kids to march around the halls to clear out their lungs. That's not really an option for Ryan at this point, so they need to find other ways to stimulate his respiration. Oh ... the source of the abdominal distention? Poop! Would you expect any other answer in this blog?

Ryan's fever has been hanging around now. They can't pin an exact cause on it, which means that GVHD (graph-versus-host-disease) could be to blame. We'll keep a close eye on the fever and his rash for the next couple of days to see what develops.

They switched out Ryan's feeding tube today. The new one goes a bit farther down than his stomach, extending into his duodenum. The new positioning greatly reduces the risk of reflux aspiration, a particularly dangerous trigger for pneumonia.