I spoke with Karl first thing this morning (7:30 a.m. Hawaii time). He sounded exhausted. He told me his back was very sore where they drained the fluid from his lungs. They've been giving him pain medication and a sleeping aid because they want him to rest.
Mom called later with news from one of the physicians on Karl's case. All the cultures -- and there are many -- came back negative. They cannot pinpoint what's causing the infection and his white cell count is normal. Therefore, they are taking him off all the antibiotics he's currently on and will wait for his fever to spike again. Then they'll take more cultures and proceed from there. They think the antibiotics are not killing the infection, but are doing a good enough job to mask the source. Right now Karl is developing a rash from one of the antibiotics so he's itchy and miserable. At least he'll get a little relief from that. They promised they'd get to the bottom of it, but they said it would take a day before the antibiotics were flushed out of his system so that his fever could spike.
Karl is pretty depressed and the thought of having to spend more time on a bed of ice isn't exactly a pleasant thought. Of course he makes fun of the situation and tells everyone they'd put him on ice if his temperature was 98.7. His blood pressure is running steady, but there was a faux pas in my last post about his kidney creatinine level -- it continues to remain higher than normal at 4.0.
Thank you for checking up on Karl. We all appreciate your prayers and kind thoughts.
Kerry
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