Happy Halloween!

 8:30 a.m.  Bennett’s in the hospital. His temp last night went away around 7 but returned 2 hours later at 100.8. I kept checking it every 30 minutes and at 10:30, it was 100.9 and 10:45 at 101.5.  He also developed a cough in the evening.   I called the Dr. on call and we came to the emergency room at SLCH arriving at 12:30.    They did a chest xray – checking for pneumonia and none present, blood cultures – will take 24 hours to see if anything grows, and a swab of his nose – checking for viruses.   We were moved to the 10th floor at 3:oo a.m.  We were disappointed that we can’t be on the 9th, we were hoping to see the nurses and patients.  Since he came in with a bug, they don’t want him on the floor with other neutropenia patients.  His temp this morning had been around 101, they gave him tylenol at 7:00 a.m. and his temp has gone down to 100.2 

They also did a blood test and his ANC dropped from 153 to 140. His hemoglobin is still ok dropping to 9.6 from 10.5. They started him on an antibiotic that he will get by iv every 8 hours to help fight any infection if it’s there. 

He is doing ok, he is just so tired from the long night and just wants to sleep.  His stuffy nose/head and cough is bothering him.  The concern is that Bennett doesn’t have many white blood cells to fight off infection and can get pretty serious if it’s not treated. Some neutropenia patients get an infection from their own body. He’s in the right place to get over this and thankful that his temp wasn’t any higher.

4:30 p.m.  Bennett’s temp went away around noon and just returned at 100.8 so they gave him more tylenol.  He has had a bowl of cereal to eat so far today.  Dr. say it will take 48 hours to get a final reading of the cultures and nose swabs so not as soon as I had thought.  He has slept all day except in-between nurse check-ups, housekeeping, etc.  His throat is getting a little scratchy. 

10:00 p.m.  Bennett’s temp is good. He ate 1/4 turkey sandwich with a couple bites of chocolate pudding for supper. He was hungry tonight and thought a stuffed crust pizza sounded good. He ate 1 1/2 pieces of just the stuffed crust and it didn’t stay down.  I was just thinking earlier how thankful I was that he wasn’t nausea, thought too soon.

The deal with the cultures are that they will check them at 24 hours and than the final check will be at 48 hours, there is the difference in the times that I was getting.

He received an antibiotic cefepime through iv at 9:00 p.m. so next dose will be at 5 a.m.  He has been getting iv fluids.

Thank you for everyone’s love, support and prayers!

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” Psalm 68:19