Wednesday 3:30 pm CST. I just got a call from John Ballard that was quite troubling. John asked me to post this message on this board. Jesse's condition has taken a detour. He has been diagnosed with a urinary infection which has affected his blood as well. He has been placed back on the respirator and is presently in a tough struggle to breathe. John been notified that he should make a visit tomorrow and will let us know the situation tomorrow afternoon.

Jesse needs our prayers at this time more than ever before.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2006 04:46PM by Bill Stevens.

All you all - Please keep praying for Jesse Buky, i.J.N.
... But don't let panic set it.

As far as Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) in bed ridden in-patients, that is fairly common and almost an inevitability for hospitalized patients who are immobile for weeks at a time, like Jesse is and will continue to be.

Depending on the bacteria or fungus that is causing this infection, and the sensitivity to anti-biotics profile from his urine or blood culture, it is usually fairly easy to treat an in-patient for UTI, even one that has progressed to sepsis (entered the blood). Some very broad-spectrum and very effective intravenous anti-biotics are available (such as Vancomycin + Gentamycin) to combat infections in such situations, and prevent further systemic blood infection.

Jesse will be on IV anti-biotics for at least the next 2 weeks, and possibly as much as 10 days after this infection clears up. That is simply just SOP (“standard operating procedure”) for sepsis, since true sepsis is automatically considered a serious condition, because the infection can progress rapidly if ineffective anti-biotics are used for too long.

I suspect the Hospital staff up there in Virginia is top-notch and that they have already called in the House Infectious Diseases Team to aggressively combat this infection. If the Attending Physicians have NOT done that yet, NOW is the time to demand this Consultation. That is the standard of care for (unresponsive) sepsis. There is no time to waste. It does take 12–36 hours to get it right – but you can’t wait days with true sepsis to find the right anti-biotic.

Prayers continue. I hope these sideline comments help.
-Cliff Hall+++, Gainesville, FL (4th year Doctor of Pharmacy Student)

I'm sure we're all concerned about Jesse, but I don't think any discussion of medical procedures or practices on this site is relevant nor does it do Jesse any good.


...........

Thanks for the insight on these lifethreatening conditions Cliff. I had a close friend that did not survive a broken hip and what you say rings a true note.

Lou

IMO, to those who love someone whose health is in jeopardy, explaining medical practices is very helpful indeed. It relieves much of the anguish of their “not-knowing”. Having been present myself personally in a VA hospital as a Pharmacy Intern on Pharmacy Counseling Rounds in the afternoon, and hearing families complain, "What’s going on? … Either the Doctors ain’t told us much yet, or I only understood half of what they had time to tell us.", I have heard their frustrations and the quivers of fear in their voices.

Buddy, you know that if Cliff Hall spends two pages* coaching you thru what to do for the little scratch you just put on your rod tip, and how to make it all better, that I did not leave that patient’s bedside until I answered every question as best as I could. The doctor’s are worried about a lawsuit. But I was worried if that family was gonna get a better night’s sleep, because at least now they felt they knew what they all were facing.

Sure I could e-mail this explanation directly to the 3 or 4 RBO Fellows who I know are following Jesse’s condition. But that would leave the 3 or 4 HUNDRED other Fellows who care about Jesse “in the dark” about what this recent medical report means.

I didn’t know that the RBO Server bandwidth or hard-drive space was that precious.

Respectfully yours in rod-building,
and in building a band of brothers,
wrapped “guitar-string” tight, …
-Cliff Hall+++, Gainesville, FL-USA*****

* Tip top tightness ... Kelly Harvester ... 03-15-06 ... 12:32
[www.rodbuilding.org]
“While working on finishing a 9-foot, 8-wt fly rod, the manufacturer suggested a size 4.5 / 64ths inch tip-top, but that was too small. When I installed a size 5.0, it scraped off a very tiny sliver of the blank in the process. Did I just create a major failure point? How much of the casting & fighting load is actually transferred to the tip of a fly rod? … Thanks for any opinions.” –Kelly.