We have some answers

Last night around 4:30 the doctor finally came around and took a look at Matthew. She said that even though his chest x-ray from Thursday didn't show pneumonia, every other clinical symptom he had pointed to pneumonia. Matthew's white count was very high (46 thousand) his breathing was rapid and he was requiring a good amount of oxygen to keep his blood level of oxygen in the normal range. The plan was to repeat his chest x-ray, more lab work and to do a CT scan. If he didn't have pneumonia, we needed to rule out a shunt infection. I knew in my heart he didn't have a shunt infection, but we had to figure out where the infection was coming from. The doctor called me about 1/2 hour after he got back from the chest x-ray and said that they found a huge pneumonia; and the reason it didn't show up the day before was probably because he was dehydrated. So they immediately started him on hew antibiotics and we are going to fight this bug.

I was also able to express some of my frustrations. The first doctor that we saw was a newer doctor and we were very unhappy with her care and demeanor. Thankfully the doctor that came in yesterday afternoon is one of our favorite doctors here and she was able to quickly make some important decisions for Matthew. I feel so much better about what is being done for Matthew. I will be even happier, though, when we can leave this place. I'm ready to be home and be in my own bed with our own schedule.

And the going home time frame will all depend on Matthew. He will need to not be dependant on oxygen and then we can switch his antibiotics to oral form and he'll be able to go home. I'm hoping for tomorrow, but I don't feel like that is realistic. Realistically, if we have no further complications, I can see us going home Monday. We're praying for a quick recovery!

From now on out it will be wait and see..but I will try to keep you all updated!