Wednesday +7 (2:30 PM)

I just left Jackie to return to the apartment for lunch. Jackie's fever has dropped some (about 101). She feels better and was able to take a very short walk down the hall. She ate a small amount of lunch. She is receiving IV antibiotics around the clock. This morning she received an infusion of platelets and magnesium as well. Things could be worse with regard to IV infusions. This morning I was them using an IV tree with 2, 3 stage infusion pumps. In other words they could run in 6 separate IV lines at once. So far they've always managed to infuse Jackie with a single 3 stage pump.

I spoke with the charge nurse and asked what was typical for this type of fever. I got the usual, "Well everyone's different" speach I was able to determine that 48 hours for this type of situation is very normal. I also commented on the high fever of over 104 last night and how it could be dangerous. I was told that her temps weren't really all that high for patients of this type (they see 106) and that high fevers in adults are not all that serious.

They went on to tell me about a study of marathon runners. It seems that a marathon runner has a rectal temperature of nearly 106 after a race. My only comment was that anyone who could convince marathon runners to provide a rectal temperature after a 26 mile race missed a calling in the sales profession somewhere!

Bruce and Jackie
From Rochester, MN