Mukund

Even from the moment we put the ultrasound probe on his belly to find a tappable pocket, we find loculated ascites.

And when the fluid is withdrawn, it is frankly kind of

reddish black in color.

Ascites red blood cells, 53,000.

Ascites white blood cells, 18,000, predominantly neutrophilic.

Ascites LDH, 852.

Ascites albumin, 1.6.

That is a sag of 0.6.

The ascites amylase and triglycerides were normal, and the ascites bilirubin was 5.6.

So at this point, I sent off some tumor markers, AFP, CA-19-9, and CEA, which all returned normal.

Hepatitis serology's come back normal.

And ANA is borderline positive at a titer of 1 to 80.

I don't have pattern for you.

And he has a negative anti-smooth muscle antibody.

By day three of hospitalization, his blood cultures are still not growing anything.

Although he was started on antibiotics before the blood cultures could be collected.

So the yield was depressed.

He's continued on vancomycin and zosyn through this time.

And subjectively, he says that his abdominal pain has really improved by day three of his hospital stay.

I'll give you some more labs to trend as well and let you know that his white blood cell count in the serum has now come down to about 20,000, which is just above his outpatient baseline in the 17,000 to 18,000 range where he's chronically been.