Adam Update

I’m guest-blogging for Adam today… here’s a copy of the post I did in qgbs (if you’re not checking it already, please check out http://community.livejournal.com/qgbs , a community group where visitors post updates about Adam and apparently lots of haiku) - john romkey

(Adam’s message to everyone is “Thank you”)

Adam seems to be doing better today than yesterday.

Yesterday was not so great. The GBS is affecting his face and neck quite a it right now. He’s having a lot of trouble swallowing, so he’s being fed through a tube and he doesn’t get to drink, so he has a lot of discomfort in his mouth. In general he’s too hot and has a lot of skin discomfort.

He was having trouble closing his eyes all the way when he blinks, so yesterday they had gauze taped over his right eye, which was alarming looking but was just to try to help keep his eye from drying out.

Because he can’t swallow or clear his throat reliably, he’s using a suction wand to try to clear his phlegm.

He has mild pneumonia and had a slight fever.

He’s having trouble controlling his fingers and can’t control his iPhone anymore (this could be a bit easier; he has to enter a code and swipe his finger across the phone fairly quickly in order to even get to the point of being able to do things on it).

Today, they feel the pneumonia has been improving. His respiration is still satisfactory. His temperature was normal a few minutes ago. After suction to relieve phlegm built up in his throat his heart rate and color are improved. And the best part is that he’s able to smile a little bit again.. yesterday and this morning he’d try to smile and nothing would happen. A few minutes ago you could definitely see the corners of his mouth go up and know that he was smiling.

Last night his neurologist said that GBS usually hits its worst between 1 week and 1 month from the start, and that Adam hadn’t bottomed out yet but that he hoped that would come within a day or two. I’m hoping that we may have just passed that point now, but it’s really too early to tell yet.