Back in the Hospital

Hello. Courtney's sister here. I just got back from the hospital where I spent the night with Courtney (& Jason, for most of it). She was sent to the E.R. around midnight with a fever and severe headache. Her fever was getting quite high and not responding to Tylenol as much as they'd like to see. They are obviously worried about a possible brain infection, but checking for any other kind of infection as well as flu or virus.

Overnight her temperature got pretty high - above 104 for a while - and stayed around 103 until this morning. She was up most of the night having X-rays, CT scans, blood tests, etc, so had only slept about 2 hours when the Physician's Assistant came in around 7am to assess her situation. Her temperature had finally gone down to about 100 by then, possibly with the help of medication and a little sleep, so she was more comfortable fever-wise, but her head was still in a lot of pain. They are trying a variety of pain medications to manage it.

They are treating her with both antibiotics and antivirals to cover their bases (the flu test results take 48 hours - too long to know whether that's what the problem is. Other tests aren't showing an infection, but that doesn't rule it out). The last report is that the surgeon is concerned about meningitis, a swelling of the fluid surrounding the brain, and will be ordering a spinal tap to ease the pressure.

Courtney is pretty uncomfortable but is very aware and talking and even managed to eat french toast this morning (after some anti-nausea medication).

I have added some items to Courtney's Care Calendar (see links on the top right), and we'll continue to update it as we learn what will happen in the next few days and whether she'll need to stay in the hospital a bit or not. Thank you so much for all or your concern, help, and prayers. It really helps to know there are so many people out there thinking of our family.