Living in the ICU

Living in the ICU is a difficult experience. For one thing, it is always day time. The lights are always on, so if you want to sleep, you really need to be exhausted. We spend most of the time sitting around waiting to hear some news-ANYTHING. This morning we all sat around waiting for the doctors to come by and tell us what was going on. Being in the ICU is generalyl exhausting because it is so busy and it's difficult to separate day and night so everything runs together.

This morning the immune globulin was administered to Caroline. It should shorten the recovery for her. The serum was delivered this morning at 8am by a courier. It then went to the pharmacy because this particular drug has never been administered by this hospital and they didn't know how to properly dispense the drug. Fortunately, they did a bit of research and printed up some instructions. The drug was administered without any problems. My mom firgures that the drug cost about $6,000 per CC, for a total of $45,000. Even though the drug is very expensive, it is usually worth it, because it will likely shorten the amount of time that Caroline must be on a ventilator and in the ICU. Without the drug, she might spend months in the ICU recovering; with it, it should be just several weeks.

This afternoon Caroline finally had her EMG. From what I could tell, the results were quite unusual, but completely characteristic of infantile botulism. Tomorrow, we should receive the results of her blood serum test, which will provide a definitive diagnosis.