Jour +40: bronchoscopy news

A culture from Claude's first bronchoscopy (done on March 3) showed that there is CMV in his lungs, so his pneumonia might have a CMV component as well as a probable fungal infection. The good news is that the pneumonia is much better than it was a couple of weeks ago (he isn't feverish, he is coughing less, and the CT scan looks better today than previously). We hope that the ganciclovir he started Friday will help to clear it up completely. Now that it 's confirmed that he has (or had?) a CMV infection, he is getting the ganciclovir three times a day instead of two, and immune globulin has also been added to try to give his immune system a boost. This is pretty taxing because he gets the iv ganciclovir at home at 6am, 2 pm and 10pm and also has to be at the hospital every day from about 9 am to noon for his other meds (fluids, caspofungin and immune globulin) and bloodwork. This will be the schedule for the next couple of weeks at least. Once I recharge the camera batteries (which ran out at Emile's birthday party after two pictures!), I'll take a picture of Claude getting his ganciclovir at home. It's a pretty amateur arrangment (involving coat hangers and picture hooks) but it seems to work . . .