Lowdown on Reed

I finally heard back from ACH on the cultures they sent out on Reed last week.

The verdict?

 

NADA!

 

That’s right. No infection. Nothing. I spoke with the nurse for about 10 minutes yesterday about what happened the day they drained it. She said they were so surprised when they were draining because no pus came out. She said that they had never seen what was draining and that they all just wanted to talk about it that day, but had to wait until that evening once they’d seen all their patients.

What they think happened to cause the redness and swelling is that somehow, whether in the process of the surgery, or on its own, a salivary gland opened. They said the drainage from the hole was similar in nature to saliva. They feel like the saliva was draining into the cavity in his jaw, and had nowhere to go so it was pooling in there, causing the redness and puffiness. No infection would explain why it wasn’t hot to our touch, why Reed wasn’t running fever, and why he didn’t seem to be feeling bad.

I’m certainly glad to hear there wasn’t another infection in there, and I’m glad that he is healing. There is still some draining going on but the hole is getting smaller. We have to go to our follow up appointment one week from today.

The GOOD THING that came out of our visit last week is that the nurse asked me if it was easier for us to come to appointments in NWA. UM, YEAH!! That’s an hour away as opposed to 2.5 one way. On the fourth Thursday of every month, our doctor and our nurse fly to NWA from Little Rock and have clinics there. This wouldn’t have helped us with the emergency trips we’ve had to make, but it will definitely be easier for our follow ups!!!! I’m so grateful we can do that from now.

So, we have a few answers and now I’m very optimistic and hopeful that this will be end of this mess and that we’ll have our follow ups next week and in a few months, and then we’ll be done with this for good!!!!!