Not the better day we were hoping for

It looks as though Harrison has a urine infection. This morning he hardly ate any breakfast as he had developed a very high temperature. Fortunately, a good dose of paracetamol sorted it out. Later in the morning, he went for an ultrasound scan of his kidneys and bladder, another diaphragm scan, chest x-ray and blood test. The kidney scan showed that they are fine. The bladder contained some 'sludge' and the diaphragm scan showed the same as before - little movement. We haven't had the results of the chest x-ray yet as the cardiology team would like the respiratory team to be involved, but the requests seem to be falling on deaf ears at present..... The second sleep study was completed last night which the respiratory team also need to review. Hopefully, we shall be given these results tomorrow. The blood test was rather an ordeal for Harrison. Over the past couple of weeks he's had lines for IV access put into most veins. As a result, there is a lot of bruising along the veins. The nurse put 'magic' anaesthetic cream on the backs of both hands and in the crooks of his elbows. Needless to say, the unused veins had not been creamed. Usually the phlebotomist gets the required result first time - not today. He had an assistant who was keen to have a go..... I wrongly assumed that this assistant was the trainee. It became apparent during the procedure that the phlebotomist doesn't usually put cannulas in for IV access and HE was the trainee! Neither did a very good job though..... After a quick look at Harrison's hand, the tourniquet was applied above the elbow. There was much tapping and rubbing of both the hand and elbow in the search for the elusive veins. Harrison's arm was going a deeper and deeper shade of purple so they reached for the needle. After three misses they gave up with the elbow and decided to try the opposite hand in an area which hadn't been creamed. Even though the area was numbed by spray, Harrison still felt alot of pain with the needle going in. After a bit of a rummage under the surface, they struck oil and managed to fill the blood tubes for testing. The cannula was then fixed in place, although I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out. The whole episode took about 35 minutes - way too long for this type of procedure. Later on this afternoon Harrison spiked another temperature which meant that he didn't want to eat his dinner tonight. He hasn't done very well at all with eating today which is really concerning us now. He is still losing weight and we have bought all his favourite foods to try and tempt him to eat. We are really hoping that his antibiotics kick in soon so that drastic measures (i.e. tube feeds) do not need to be taken. Bernard took a photograph this afternoon of Harrison modelling his finished t-shirt. I can't include it in this post because Bernard has gone home tonight (photo on phone) as he has started to develop a sore throat. Fingers firmly crossed that it is purely down to lack of sleep and the stress of sitting here for over two weeks.... Hopefully he will feel much better in the morning. (Edited 28/07/09) Here are the photos of the finished t-shirt: