Biopsy Day +21

Today started like most of the others as of lately. Stevan slept in as long as he could considering he couldn't eat anything before his biopsy.

Stevan acting up as he gets dressed up
before going in for his biopsy.

They came to wheel him downstairs about 1:30pm. I walked down with him and scratched his head while we waited in holding, as they got him prepped and ready for the operating room. Dr White came in to see him and let him know all they were going to make an incision in his arm in order to  use a needle about the size of a straw to pull out a piece of bone and then some fluid from the joint. They knocked him out for the proceedure, which is why they took him to the OR.

The biopsy took about 30 minutes. They kept Stevan in recovery for about two hours. Dr White came out and told me everything went well. He said that everything looked ok, but he really expected it to. The fluid he pulled out looked like blood. Dr White said that they would set them up to grow cultures, which takes at least 24 hours and as long as 5 days.  At that time they will be able to determine if Stevan's fever was caused by what kind of infection, if there is an infection there. Dr White said that he was pretty confidant that is what the problem is.

If it is the bone infection, Osteomyelitis, it will require 6 to 8 weeks of IV antibiotics, called Vancomycin. To get a head start on the treatment, they went ahead and started him on it.

Stevan's arm is giving him a lot of pain, since the biopsy. They are giving him morphine and oxycodone to help take the edge off. It will be sore for several days.

Thank you for keeping up with us. Our prayers tonight is that the infection will grow very quickly on the culture so they will know what the problem is with Stevan and they will send us home.