3:30pm: After a discussion with the pulmonologists, the doctors have suggested that we move forward with the use of daxamethasone. They were originally going to wait until the antibiotics were finished, but took another culture and noticed a drastic drop of white blood cells (which are a sign of infection) from the last culture. This leads them to believe that the infection is either gone, or on its way out and the issues that Reid is facing is probably not due to this infection/bacteria.

With that being said, Dr. Patel had asked Kristen and I today if we were comfortable with the use of this drug (they need consent before they do). The plan would be for the dexamethasone to be administered twice daily for 3 to 7 days, followed by a three week treatment of prednisone.

I gave Dr. Metcalf at Cobb Hospital a call this afternoon and he was in favor of using the drug as Reid is getting too big to be dealing with the issues that he is. Dr. Metcalf's only concern was that a 3 day treatment of dexamethasone would probably not yield many results as it usually takes 48-72 hours to start seeing anything.

Reid will get his first dose today and then two a day until they feel that he has made enough progress (3 days initially, then evaluate. If needed, two additional days and then re-evaluate. If needed, two additional days for a max of 7 days). At that point, they will start the prednisone for the three weeks.

We are scared of the unknown, but studies have shown that low doses (less than 9 days) of this medicine are "safe". We feel the risks of not starting this drug outweigh the risks of taking it and we will deal with the consequences later in life if they ever present themselves.

12:30pm: Still at 80% O2, but found out that his hematocrit level was 29... time for a blood transfusion. This may partially explain some of the reason as to why it is taking some time for him to rebound from yesterday...

8:10am: Reid is down to 80% O2 as of 8:00am. When Kristen called at 4am, he was at 90%, so hopefully we can continue this downward trend today.