Monday, May 16, 2011

Fever and Neutropenia

Well we enjoyed a few days at home before things got crazy again. Saturday my parents and my brother, Jay, arrived for a quick visit. Annabelle was excited to see them and super excited that they brought her bike down! Layla, however, woke up from her nap screaming and holding her ears. So I loaded her up and headed to Instacare in Ogden. Sure enough, ear infections! Just getting to the Instacare was enough stress for me. That blasted GPS took me to the wrong place. Times like that make me want to throw it through (not out) the window. But then I love it so much when it tells me where the nearest Cafe Rio is. It's a love hate relationship we have.

So after Layla and I returned things were normal for a few hours. My parents left Sunday and then Annabelle fell asleep on the couch. After nearly 4 hours she woke up and was extra ornery. She felt a little warm and sure enough her temp was 101.2! Anything over 100.4 we have to go to the local ER to have her evaluated and blood cultures drawn because infections, particularly Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI), are very serious when your immune system is down from the chemo. Annabelle's white blood cell count was SUPER low, that's called neutropenia, so she and I got a late night ride to PCMC in the ambulance. She was not as excited about it as I was but she ended up sleeping most of the way.

So here we are, back the ICS unit. So far the blood cultures are negative, urine was negative and so was her strep test. Normally they don't find a cause of the fever but they go ahead and do antibiotics. She has gotten some mouth sores so she doesn't eat or drink much so she is still getting IV fluids too. Neutropenia is one of those things that just comes with the chemo so it isn't that big of a deal. It's when you get a fever along with it that they bring you back in-patient.

Annabelle is a bit of a celebrity around here it seems. I'm sure they make all patients feel that way but she is known for her pink sparkly boots. The Drs text each other about their friend in the pink boots and it is actually passed on every shift change. They also talk about how cute everyone says she is! Sometimes I wonder if they say that because she is the only one that still has hair! Either way she IS cute.

And just for fun here are a few things Annabelle has said/done lately....
She nearly gags every time she goes pee because the antibiotics make it so rank. The first time she thought it was my breath that smelled so bad! I quickly corrected her on that one.
She said to me in a worried voice "I can feel something here. Come look!" Turns out it was just her ribs. The poor kid didn't have much meat on her bones to start with so she is getting a little boney now.
17 times a day..."There's something coming out of me!" as she spits into a tissue.

Thank goodness she keeps me laughing. I sure love my Annabelle Bananabelle!

2 comments:

Elisabeth Yates said...

Of course Annabelle is a celebrity! She is your precious girl! Her little comments are so cute. Keep a record of them. They will make her laugh someday...Is Annabelle taking Glutamine for her mouth sores? They gave it to Kim and it helped alot. She took it between rounds of chemo too and she never got mouth sore again after the initial start of the chemo. I love you. Hang in there. We send our love and support and add our faith to yours that Annabelle will be healed!

Jenny said...

We're sending a care package soon. Where do you want it sent? We love you guys.