October 16: Fever and Surgery

There was little change today. Jeff was somewhat coherent during a large part of the day but for some reason he grew agitated in the afternoon so they asked us to let him rest and calm down. Unfortunately, when he's awake, h's aware of the tubes and the procedures, etc, which are all naturally uncomfortable. They helped him calm down so that he wouldn't hurt himself by pulling at his tubes and bandages and then he slept.

The biggest concern is that his fever continues to be very high and he is not responding to their efforts to bring it down. They said that they don't suspect an infection to be the cause of the fever. Their most likely explanation is that his body doesn't recognize what's happening to it (both the injuries and the treatments) so it's trying to cook out the foreign things. We're praying hard that his fever will break.

Jeff may have surgery tomorrow, which is a very good sign. They believe that his vitals are strong and his wounds are healing well enough as to make him eligible for this surgery. This surgery would repair the skin at the worst wound sites and if successful, would replace the need for skin grafting--yay! There are always risks with any surgery but the doctor at this time does not think that there is any particularly elevated risk with either Jeff's specific injuries or this specific type of surgery so baring any unforseen negative changes, he will undergo the surgery tomorrow. So please pray that the surgery is successful.

Visiting hours are closed now and open up again before bed so we will go see him one more time today. If anything changes, I'll post again.