Dog Days of Summer

Throughout the summer, Kenny faced ongoing battles with infection. After consulting with an infectious disease specialist, it was decided that he should receive IV antibiotics to manage the current infection and prevent further abscesses until he could undergo a major surgery. So I learned a new skill and gave him IV antibiotics every night for six weeks.  As summer transitioned into fall, plans were made for Kenny to have surgery to replace the metal plate in his jaw around October 10. But only about a week after the surgery was scheduled, he developed a cough. The anesthesiologist refused to move forward with the surgery until his cough was resolved. Despite completing the IV antibiotic course and transitioning to oral antibiotics, his face began to swell, leading us to seek emergency care at Texas Harris ER on October 10. They did a CT scan and confirmed he had another abscess. We asked to be transferred back to the county hospital JPS because that’s where the original surgeons were based. The hospital denied the transfer as they had no beds available, and we were subsequently admitted to Texas Harris Health on October 11, which was a Friday. On the evening of admission, his infectious disease doctor, Dr. Sam, came in and started lighting fires under people. She wanted to know why no plan had been made to drain the abscess. Come to find out, none of the maxillofacial surgeons at Harris wanted to touch Kenny's case because they had not done the original surgery. A young ENT specialist stepped in and successfully performed the drainage surgery on Saturday morning, October 12. The surgery went smoothly and he felt immediate relief from the pain and pressure in his face. At no time during this surgery did the anesthesiologist or surgeon notice visible signs of a cancer recurrence. He recovered in the hospital and was sent home on October 16 to prepare for the big surgery, which had been scheduled for October 31.