In house… again

Expect the unexpected.

I had really hoped that Gavin would have this last week of relative freedom at home before heading back to hospital for Operation Stem-Cell Part 2.  I had planned on keeping him isolated at home this week while his neutropenia is at its worst, barring the development of any fevers of course.

Last night he woke up a couple of times, vomiting  and upset.  Something was clearly on the rise.  I took his temp compulsively every 10 minutes all morning, watching it slowly tick upwards to an obvious low-grade fever.  We had an appointment at clinic anyway, and I knew that he would probably end up being transfused today, so I headed to hospital knowing that they might check us in but refusing to pack a preparatory bag anyway.

Once at Sick Kids today, Gavin began to feel pretty poorly, and instead of playing in the kitchen as he usually does, curled up on my lap under Minnow.  Our contact nurse quickly got us into an isolation room and confirmed a fever of 38.1.  The next step is to check counts and then start IV antibiotics.  Gavin’s counts came back at pretty much zero all around.  His platelets were down around 19, instead of above 150 as they should be.  His hemoglobin was pretty low too.  However, after a nap, he was feeling much better and was happy to play in the day hospital for the rest of the day, before we finally got moved to our new room on 8A at 5:00.

Sigh. I arrived at the hospital at 10:00 this morning and we got checked into a room at 5:00.  It’s been a known fact that he needed a transfusion and that didn’t happen until about half an hour ago.  So it took NINE HOURS to get a transfusion going.  It just seems so incredibly inefficient.

I’m not going to go off on a rant though tonight.  I returned home to pick up our things for our unexpected vacation and will return in the early morning.

Praying for this fever to come down please.