Darn Fever

I am writing from the ER at Children's.  We have to be here because it's Sunday.  One benefit to cancer is that you don't have to wait in waiting rooms.  When Esther has her labs drawn she's taken right to a room and bumped up to the front of the list.  Tonight we jumped to the front of 40-50 people who were waiting.  There was one lady who was ticked off and yelled out, "Now, somebody else gets to go ahead! Why do they get to go first?"  I will be honest, it was satisfying to turn the stroller around and show her my bald headed beauty.  Hopefully she stopped complaining.

Esther has had a lowish fever most of the day, between 99.5 and 100.2.  She jumped up to 101.1 and so down to Denver we went.  Anthony was boarding an airplane to for a work trip right about the same time.  Praise God for Aunt Robin and Uncle Casey.  Robin came right over and is going to take care of the kids until Tuesday morning when Anthony gets back.  She's even going to brave Zinnia's first dentist appointment and a filling for Rourke in the morning.  Zinnia is pretty stoked about going to the dentist.  I would just cancel the appointment, but she is SO, SO excited to go because she gets "tube-paste, a tube-brush, flossers, gum, and glubs."  She's seen the loot the other kids get and can't wait to have her own dentist goodies.  The things kids are excited about, right?!

And...Aunt Robin is the bomb-diggity, no?!  Okay...I am totally exhausted and a little slap happy.  I apologize for typos and bad humor.

They began standard neutropenic (ANC below 500) fever treatment with antibiotics.  They gave Esther a bolus (extra fluids) in the hopes of avoiding a blood pressure drop.  Her blood pressure still dropped and she had some of the same shaking she had when she was admitted to the ICU.  As soon as the nurse stopped the antibiotics, her shaking slowed and then stopped.  Last time the doctor explained that is often the body's reaction to a quickly dying infection.  We still have yet to find an infection with all of these fevers...

Esther's ANC was only 10 and her platelets were 7...that is really low.  Her hemoglobin was good, but could be low tomorrow because fevers tend to kill red blood cells.  They transfuse platelets at 10, normal is somewhere between 300-500.  I am SO glad I pushed for the platelets on Thursday, she definitely needed them this weekend and she'll have another platelet transfusion when we get up to our room.  We'll be on 8 again...yea, we can see out the windows!

I think that is all the update I can muster right now.  Here's to a restful night.