After a hard round of steroids, we were hoping that we would have a few easy weeks before steroids start over again. Not so. Cancer and the intensity of treatment continues to keep us on our toes. Watts woke up from his nap yesterday with a 104 temperature and lethargic behavior. We immediately took him to the Brenner Emergency Dept. where he had in a fever of 105.
We are learning that Maintenance is a different ballgame than the past year of treatment. Every single time we've been to the ED before, Watts has been neutropenic and even a 100.5 is an automatic admission and days of antibiotics (neutropenia suppresses fevers so 100.5 could be equal to a much, much higher temperature). Watts' ANC was 2200 yesterday so we were not an automatic admit...even with how high his temperature was. They drew a CBC, got blood cultures, took a (traumatic) chest xray, and gave him fluids and a round of antibiotics that will last for 48 hrs. [If he was neutropenic, he would have had to have a different antibiotic that would have been given every 6 hours...hence part of the reason for auto. admit.] They also gave him Tylenol and watched him for a couple hours. It dropped his fever down and, after a couple hours and some fluid, his fast heart rate slowed down. We left the ED around 9:30pm last night and are now home to monitor Watts and, basically, wait.
His fever has stayed relatively low through the night and day...possibly because of the round of antibiotics, possibly because it's a virus running its course. We wait now to find out if his blood cultures will grow anything and we also wait to see what happens when the antibiotics are out of his system. We will go on Friday morning to clinic and check his Immunoglobulin (aka antibodies) level. If it is low, he will get an IVIG transfusion and it also might be part of the why he has gotten sick.
Please pray for our little Warrior-Boy and for our spirits. And for sleep too!
No comments:
Post a Comment