David and I were wrecks this morning and dreading how screwed up counts could be today. So many variables to be taken into account and we just did not know what to expect. We have both said over and over again that all we want for our anniversary is beautiful blood work, and thankfully - YAY - that is what we got.
Anc was 2000, platelets 411 (highest since diagnosis), wbc 3.3 and hemoglobin was a staggering 12.6. This is incredible considering how it has been constantly falling for the last 6 weeks. It is not normal for pneumonia to have an effect on hgb, but it would seem to be the case in Scott's situation. Hopefully now he wont need anymore transfusions.
His chemistry was also good and whilst the bilirubin was a little elevated it was nothing like we have seen over the last few weeks. His nutrition levels had also recovered.
Chemo has been reduced to 100% as they dont want to overload his system whilst still recovering from an infection.
We now wait with baited breath to see whether the neurontin will take effect this cycle. I hope so. Vincristine week with no pain would be bliss.
So thats it. A good blood/chemo day. Phew. :)
Oh yeah and it's anniversary! Will write something sappy about that later.

Great blog: http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

Scott is doing okay thankfully. We are very pleased that he has managed at home, and so far, has not had to be re-admitted.
The antibiotics and antifungals are wreaking havoc with his stomach but we are getting them down and hopefully they are doing their job in killing the pneumonia. Due to this he has been housebound since coming home which is a shame because he could really do with a little fresh air and exercise. We also have no idea how his anc is at this point. It dropped every day that he was inpatient and when we left it was at 1100. Add 6mp (chemo) to a falling anc and it could well have bottomed out. Having said that, he could be tolerating the chemo and recovering. We may be pleasantly surprised come Thursday. We have no way of knowing which way it is going and we are taking no chances. The last thing he needs is another infection, hospital stay or a worsening of his pneumonia.
Scott is managing to eat again, not a lot, but he’s doing pretty darn well all things considered. We’re also closely monitoring his temperature and fluid intake. He is taking ativan and zofram for his nausea and probiotics to try and stem his other ‘problem’. We are keeping an eye on his color and energy and watching for any sign of jaundice and so far, he looks great. He is breathing okay and doing his lung exercises with his flutter valve but still, no coughing!!! Weird.
All in all he is happy. He is home, he has his cat, and he has a new video game. He also has a house full of his peeps running around at his beck and call.
I’ll update again on Thursday. I am desperately, desperately hoping for good blood work and to be able to start his chemo and steroids. Thursday is also our 4th wedding anniversary so if all goes well at clinic then maybe we can relax and kick it up a notch later in the day. That’d be nice!

I think we may be getting out of here later today. Im not too sure I am happy with this but Scott sure is. His o2 is holding close to 100% and his lungs sound better but the pneumonia is still present but under control. We will be released with lots of meds, 2 anti fungals and oodles of advice on how to continue treating him at home. Obviously the doctors are pleased with his progress and content to discharge him, I am just nervous at going home without the o2 and heart monitor.
His bloodwork this morning has shown signs of malnutrition which is understandable given that he hasnt eaten for 8 or 9 days now. He will recieve an infusion of protein prior to discharge and we'll just have to do our best over the coming days to try and build him up again. However I have a long, long list of foods he cannot have for the next 3 weeks. Foods which contain Tyramine (meat, fish, vegetables, over-ripe fruit, chocolate, peanuts, coke, cheese and many other things) are all out for the time being as they can interfere with the antifungals and lead to a "hypertensive crisis that may be life threatening".
He hasnt had a blood transfusion in 3 days and so far the hgb is holding around 10. This is still low for Scott but at least, for now, it is stable. I would imagine we will have to come back in for a blood test on Monday to see how he copes over the weekend.
It's great to be going home - we miss our kitties so much - but it's a little scary.
Before I sign off I just want to say thank you to my mum and sister for travelling thousands of miles to come and look after us. I am so happy to be going home to a clean house, happy cats and food in the fridge! :) Also thank you to my awesome friend and 'angel' Susan. Whenever we have a crisis, "poof" she is there at our side. Thank you to Sarah for the games, books and chocolates and for being so damn lovely. Thanks too to our pet therapists and all the kind volunteers who have kept Scott's spirits up over the last 9 days.
Over and out.

We finally did get a growth on some of Scott's lab slides - candida. Yup, yeast. While the culture has grown this, it is not certain this was the primary and sole cause of Scott's pneumonia. Be that as it may, candida is a fungal infection. It is a very good thing Scott has had Zyvox and fluconazole since Saturday morning. Today the docs added omnicef to his battery of drugs, and stopped the Bactrim.

Scott was doing better today, and finally ate a whopping 2 saltines. He did walk a few laps this evening (under great protest) and hasn't had O2 since he took off the mask for his nurse last night. He still is breathing shallow, and has an elevated heartrate, but he is improving. He probably wouldn't agree with that, as his nausea seems pretty consistent throughout the day.

So, a fungal pneumonia it is. We just want it pounded further by the proper drugs and to get Scott home. That said, we don't want him home too quickly either. The last thing we want is for a fungal pneumonia to not be fully eliminated and have it return.

Off to bed now. We'll be grabbing what should be a very travel-weary Lorna (Stephanie's sister) at the airport just about lunch tomorrow. She should be full of energy, since she took off from Johannesburg about lunchtime today. More tomorrow.

EDIT: I did want to add one thing. Scott got visited by Dumbo, a treatment dog this evening. Now getting visits from treatment dogs isn't a rare thing. Scott sees the likes of Benji and Sunny on a regular basis. They are large dogs. Most the treatment dogs are labs or retrievers of some sort. But Dumbo is different, and the last thing I would ever expect a treatment dog to be - Dumbo is a chiuaua. A tiny little girl. And as friendly as any treatment dog we've ever seen. Anyone knowing dogs realizes these dogs tend to like their owner and growl and bite everything and everyone else in their path. Not Dumbo. She just sits, gets pet and licks everyone in sight. She is quite a sight, and I wished I had a picture to post.

Just a quick update here tonight.

First off - Christine (Steph's mum) got here right on schedule, so breathe easy Eric. Just wanted to let you know she arrived all in one piece when you read this in the morning. We got her all tucked up for the night already. We did get by the hospital on the way home, so she's had a visit with Scott.

Scott this evening looked a bit better to my non-doctor eyes. He was chuffed to see his Nana walk in the room. Easily the biggest smile he's had on his face since admission last week. She also came with Oscar, the Harrod's 2008 Christmas bear in tow, which is now perched right at the foot of his bed keeping a watchful eye on Scott. I can tell he's better, as he made a comment after his nurse left the room. He said "she's purty" (trying to sound like me I guess). When Stephanie and Nana left the room for a bit, I told him I'd bet he wouldn't say it to her face. He instantly said "how much".

A few moments later, his nurse came back in and I lost 5 bucks, and his nurse replied "I see you're getting better!" He actually answered all her questions with words instead of nods. Removed the O2 mask at her request and kept talking to me for a few more minutes. He was still without the mask when I left and holding up a 94 on the meter, so that is a good sign.

Hopefully the night is at least a bit more restful for both of them.

Yet another morning of continuous drugs, oncology doctors, pulmonary doctors and respiratory therapists. And all the while, Scott continued to puke.
Thankfully they all agree that he is looking better and improving daily. It is still a mystery as to the type of pneumonia he has. Bacterial has been pretty much ruled out, as has PCP and Legionnaires. As yet nothing has grown on the fungal cultures but because he had been given anti fungals prior to the cultures being taken, the results could come back as a false negative. Fungals can take up to 5 days to grow and we are almost at the 3 day mark.
I was starting to believe that this was all viral, and hoping that is was, but the lung doctor just told me that his early symptoms (the need for oxygen and very high fevers) led him to believe the pneumonia was fungal.
So the plan is to stay on regular high doses of anti-fungals, antibiotics and diuretics (to stop fluid build up) and to keep on with respiratory therapy. This morning 3 IV medicines were approved for his sickness, so hopefully we'll see some relief from this soon.
His hemoglobin is also still a mystery. The Epstein-Barr results are due anytime now and if these are negative he will have further tests to see if he has a genetic condition that can cause rapid red blood cell death. That cant do this right now as he has had two transfusions in the last few days and this will obviously screw up the test.
Thats it for now.

Monday

Not too much change today overall. Today's xray showed a bit clearer than Saturday's, so that's a positive. Scott is still extremely exhausted, as he has rested very little in 5 days. He battled fever during the night again, but not quite as high as the first few nights. No cooling blanket has been used since he moved back over from ICU. A constant barrage of different medicines continue. He's having nausea because of all the drugs, yet has little in his stomach. So when he does get sick, it is a heartbreaking sight. His chest hurts, and he's still working on about 2 litres of O2. He did walk a couple of laps around the 2nd floor with us this evening, but even then had to stop a few times to make those couple of laps. His breathing is still quite rapid and shallow, and we almost let out a cheer if his heart rate gets down to 100-110. It constantly races to compensate for the lack of work his lungs are doing, plus as a result of the many antibiotics.

Doc Rosenberg, the pulmonary doc, has been quite good with Scott. He stopped by today with a few of his med students to check Scott over. He's also ok'd a new type of respiratory therapy which was started last night by a wonderful young doctor from Shands, whom had Scott actually smiling at 4 in the morning. The treatment is continuing tonight with, what Stephanie said, is a "large man which Scott seems to like". These treatments come each 4 hours round the clock. We're hoping for good results from them. Scott seems happier during this stay with male doctors, nurses and techs for some reason.

As we said already, this is going to be a slow process of recovery. The sheer amounts of drugs he's having administered would scare anyone. How do they all truly react with each other? I doubt any one person truly knows. But they are blasting him with drugs to attack any of the possible nasty fungal and bacterial pneumonias. If it ends up being a viral type, we may never know specifically which virus started all of this. That is a scary thought all on its own with Scott's situation.

If you saw him 10 days ago, you'd have never dreamed we'd have been dealing with the last 5 days. It rattles your system and reminds you to never drop your guard. It is next to impossible to explain to people what this is like for Scott. It is simply beyond belief what he has to endure on just his T-cell treatment protocal. What he's enduring right now - I simply do not have words to describe.

Dez is sacked out. I'm going. Sadly another of what is likely going to be many more nights of beeping pumps and sensors, breathing treatments, fever, nausea and lack of sleep for our little guy and Stephanie.

Actually scratch that post below. Scott has pneumonia, but not that type. Someone read a report wrong. He doesn not in fact have that type of pneumonia. There was a mistake in reading the lab report earlier today. Obviously this was quite disturbing, and I believe Stephanie made it quite clear how disturbing and unacceptable the mistake was. I also understand doctors are humans and all of this is nothing close to a perfect science - but a mistakenly read report by someone we're trusting with our child's life is certainly not going unchecked quietly.

That's enough about that.

Scott is back in the same room on the oncology floor. He says his chest is very sore, and his breathing is shallow. The short breaths keep his heart racing along in the 120-130 range. He was been turned down to 3 litres of O2 right now. At one time he did say he felt better than a couple of days ago, but later change his mind when I ask, and said he wasn't sure. Scott is on a massive combination of drugs right now. A quite frightening list. I can recall them all off the top of my head. He basically feels completely miserable, but is happy to be back in one of the "normal" rooms. The ICU rooms are quite scary to him, and his anxiety gets high over there.

It's a lot more comfortable for Stephanie as well, since there are no 2nd beds in the ICU, just a recliner. No nice private bathroom or shower either. She lives at the hospital, and there has been a very small amount of time that she's not been there at any time during any of Scott's stays. This tends to make our house revert to a "guy house" with just Derry and I here. The smell of Clorox leaves after a couple of days, and some other smell seems to replace it. We make due best we can. Stephanie's mum will be over Tuesday night, and she'll help whip us back into shape.

So to sum up the whirlwind of the last couple of days - it is a very serious situation. Scott has to fight off what is still an unknown source of pneumonia. But we do know it is not PCP - which he is specifically medicated to prevent on a regular basis. That is about the most positive spin I can muster right now. It is very hard to watch how much he's struggling to breathe and knowing just how many drugs are being pumped into him.

Cautious good news this morning. The lab report has come back with bacterial pneumonia - mycoplasma pneumonia to be specific. Better known as walking pneumonia. The lab report showed it appears Scott had never been exposed to this bacteria, as his system is producing massive amounts of the antibodies to fight it (a good thing). So far, no fungal or viral types have shown up in the lab. That is about as good of news as we could expect right now. Scott was on 20 litres of oxygen yesterday, it's been lowered to 5 litres this morning. He's only allowed clear fluids right now. No food still.

Another xray this morning looked basically the same as yesterday's. No improvement (which wasn't really expected only a day into heavy duty antibiotic regimen), but also no further progression.

This IS good news, but Scott is still extremely miserable and very sick. He will still have a lengthy stay full of misery, but this news even put the doctors a bit more at ease. Yesterday, this just wasn't the case. Don't read this wrong, this is still a very serious issue which we must face.

Scott is going to be moved out of ICU and back onto the oncology floor sometime today. He can get the necessary oxygen and all of his meds there, plus he can move around a lot more, as he'll be able to leave the room with a mask on and walk laps in the oh-so-familiar hallways of the 2nd floor. The rooms there are exponentially less scary to Scott, he did not want to get back in the bed all night last night. I'm glad he's that stubborn and refused. He'll also have his games and tv to keep his mind occupied during what is going to be a pretty lengthy stay at St. Joe's.

This has been a very long day. I'll try to sum up things, but be forewarned I'll likely ramble a bit here. I'm probably also missing some things about today, but it is all a bit of a blur at the moment.

Scott's fever just would not abate through the night again, even with loads of drugs. It just keeps coming back. He also has been breathing shallow, as he tends to do so to fight from coughing. This prompted one of the nurses to check the O2 level in his blood. It was down below 90, so she summoned the doctor. After getting checked over, a follow up xray was ordered. The results were not good. The "infiltrates" which showed in his lungs on Wednesday have shown progression - they are more in his lungs than on Wednesday. This confirms has developed pneumonia, and it was getting worse.

This resulted in Scott being transferred to ICU in order to perform a bronchoscopy (sp?). He was sedated with a local, and the procedure was performed. This is the scope which is ran into his lungs with a tiny camera and a means to take a sample of what is in there. The results have been ordered on an expedited manner, but we aren't sure when they will actually be received.

Stephanie was made to leave the room, and this distressed Scott greatly, as he was awake when they made her leave. Afterward, we went back in to a a struggling kid. He was fighting coughing, half under and it was heartbreaking.

He is now on a laundry list of medications. Ones for viral pneumonia. One for fungal pneumonia and I honestly don't know what else. Seems he's getting a different drug every 30 minutes. It is all very hard to keep up with, and we probably don't want to know what they all are anyway. Scott is being a gamer tonight, but is very scared. He's been sitting in the chair in the room for several hours. He is now refusing the bed. We believe he is scared if he lies down, he won't get up. Sitting up is always better than lying flat, so he's conscious of that fact.

We did ask him if he remembered the procedure, and thankfully he did not. The doctors in the room said he told them about his brother, hockey and video games. So whatever they used to zone him out worked thankfully.

This is going to be a long hospital stay. Likely at least a couple of weeks we've been warned. Scotty remains in ICU tonight to be monitored closely and get all the prescribed drugs right on schedule.

We remained worried sick and scared.

Scott had another dreadful night, fighting a temp in the 104 range. It spiked up around 1 in the morning, and nothing really helped it. He and Stephanie were basically awake all night again. He's been laying on the cooling mat for a day now. The doc stopped by this morning and they are still rather certain he's dealing with mono. If that is in fact the precise virus he's fighting, it will likely mean a number of blood transfusions over time to keep his hemoglobin up. It bounced up nicely last night after the transfusion (up from 7.6 to 10.3), which is expected with the blood. The next round of blood test (sometime during the night tonight) should give us an idea of how quickly it may be changing.

He's currently jacked up on Ativan and Tylenol w/Codeine, and still has a temp around 102. He just turned the tv off and has lowered his bed flat, so hopefully he'll get into a decent doze/sleep for a couple or few hours. Being awake all night, along with the vomiting and all the other things going wrong has exhausted the poor kid.

He is a very sick little fella right now.

We will update here as things change. If we're not updating, that means things are basically the same as right now. Posting every few hours about how sick our little guy is seems a bit weird right now.

I wanted to note to Angel Dave in Maine - the velvet door tag couldn't have showed up at a better time! Scott sat off right away and colored it in very nicely and placed it on his hospital room door. And Angel Laura - Scott hasn't been eating much of anything, but went to work on the snake right away as well. We just hope you folks know how such seemingly small things help. Thank you.

Last post of the evening - Scott is finally getting his blood transfusion. With the help of Motrin (which isn't easily approved in someone like Scott's situation) and the water pad, his temp got down enough to go ahead with transfusion.

Don't really know what the night may have in store. Hopefully his temp stays down. He is still on the cooling pad for now, and the room is about 60 degrees it seems.

I'll update in morning sometime.
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As Steph said earlier, Scott has a number of things thrown out of whack and just raging with his body.

The latest is the blood transfusion. Blood was ordered and about to get infused, but a temp check showed 102.6 - too hig for a blood trasnfusion. It had just been 101.5 literally 5 minutes prior - and this is just an hour after having Tylenol/Codeine. So all his covers have been removed and Scott lies there with a chill due to fever but needs his body cooled. Its not nice.

His x-ray showed "infiltrates" in his chest. A viral pane has been done, but those results take at least 3 days.

This gets very complicated and confusing.

So this is going to be a rough, scary, uncertain few days until what is happening is pinpointed. Needless to say, Scott is miserable and a mental wreck, as are we.

More later.
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Scott isnt very well. Last night his temp was at 104.4 but thankfully dropped a little after tylenol and being wrapped up in a cooling/torture blanket and damp towels. He has stuff in his lungs and the x-ray cannot rule out pneumonia, he is jaundiced and his hemoglobin is lower than it has been since this all started. Today he will get a blood transfusion and antibiotics and a viral panel to see if he has mono or something similar which could be eating up his red blood cells. He has blood and bacteria in his pee and we are waiting to see if cultures grow.
I had a bit of a hissy fit this morning and made it clear I needed to see the main man, Dr Tebbi. Thankfully he was around and came to see us and made me feel so much better. Whilst this is incredibly scary he did manage to reassure me that he did not see relapse only a viral infection. Whatever the root cause is it is causing chaos within Scott, in his lungs, in his blood and in his liver.
Scott is asleep right now, exhausted from last night and also because of his hemoglobin.
Its heartbreaking and scary.

Another fever

I'll keep this short just to update those across the pond as you awake on what will be Thursday morning....

...late this morning Scott pass the dreaded fever threshold of 100.5 F (38 C) again, so we were off to St. Joe's. After a verified reading in the clinic, the hope of us just having a crap thermometer which was wrong was washed away.

Another fever. Scott signed in to a room on the ped oncology floor.

His hacking cough comes in fits, which is very worrying to us. Doc Obzut listened to his lungs thoroughly, and heard nothing disturbing. But something is causing the cough. He says he cough because his chest tingles right behind his breast bone area. She also checked all around his abdomen and head and neck lymphnodes. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Even before we left for hospital, Stephanie and I were set on requesting a chest x-ray at the minimum. Luckily, Doc O thought exactly the same before I even mentioned it to her. He didn't get down for it til late in the afternoon, and we haven't heard anything back from anyone.

So Stephanie and Scott are already tucked in bed at St. Joe's. Derry just gone to bed here. I'm just sitting reading through old blood tests and "researching". Don't really know for what and will probably give myself nightmares, but such is the life in this world.

I'll update tomorrow as soon as we hear anything.

"Charlotte sometimes dreams a wall around herself"

You know, for someone who doesn’t go in for all that mystical foo-foo I am ridiculously hesitant in putting a hex on us by telling you this weekend was pretty good.
Scott came so close to ending up back in the big house on Friday due to high temperatures and all looked gloomy for a while. But then it dropped like a stone, repeating last week’s incident. It is worrying. Why his temperature is fluctuating like this I don’t know. Anyhow, I forced myself to lay off the thermometer this weekend, well cut back at least, and he seems stable again. Scott is also a little pale and yellow-ish although not pure white and whilst he did complain of feeling tired from time to time he also found the energy to do more than he has done in quite a while. He has also been having cramps in his hands and feet and again I’m not sure why. It could be biological but with all the drugs he is taking it could also be a side effect. And one more thing, he is coughing like a crack-smoking coal miner. Not good. So there are a few things going on and David and I, and Scott too, are nervous and jittery and can only hope that none of the above are serious in nature.
But like I was saying we did manage to have a decent weekend. Probably very boring compared to just about everyone else’s but good for us. It was almost normal. We went for a bike ride like the ordinary people do. David and Scott went out on Saturday night, just like regular folks, to see a hockey game. We watched a movie all the way through and everyone was civil and didn’t fight or throw up. We ordered pizza and the pizza man didn’t get lost and the pizza was really good for a change. We pretended we were just like all the other normal families without cancer and went to support Derry and his team and I didn’t take my bag full of emergency medicines. But unlike ordinary games they won so that kind of ruined the streak but oh well.
Considering we are all manic depressives, to one degree or another, and considering how little it takes to throw any one of us into complete hysteria, and considering how freaking freaked out with stress we are, I think we did rather well.

Pre-game pow-wow, they look like they-re praying but they arent, I dont think so anyway..

Looking hunkerific in hockey pants ...

Another bum shot. If you're wondering why there are never any pictures of him actually moving its because he's too fast and becomes but a blur when on ice! its true ...

Another of my brilliant shots of Derry from behind - lol :)

Woohoo!

Week 83

I'll keep this short and sweet as I am not in the mood for updating but if I dont the phone will be ringing first thing in the morning. Blogging about your child's cancer ups and downs really isnt much fun and besides which how many ways are there to discuss blood work?
His anc was fine at over 6000 (boosted by steroids).
Wbc - 7.0
Hgb - low and I dont want to talk about it
Platelets - 230, a slight increase from Saturday when we were discharged, phew!
Bilibloodyrubin - Yes, good old bilirubin rears its ugly head again and is elevated at 2.5

Redemption Song

Scott has been jammin' along with the oh so very incredible Bob Marley. He seems to 'get' the whole rasta thing, even more so when he's popped an Ativan or 12 (only joking Doctor Tebbi)! So yeah, he's been getting down with it today, getting his rasta on, and coping incredibly well with the neuropathy.

Another life, claimed and slain too soon, by cancer's greedy hands ...

Zoltar speaks

You know, I read somewhere, that in America the equivalent of 2 classrooms full of children are diagnosed with cancer, every single day. The great Mother Nature casts her eyes, she points and declares, "I'll take that one and that one today". The following day, and the day after that, she hones in on child after child, classroom after classroom.

It is still hard to believe that my little man, at the age of ten, was diagnosed with cancer. I had fears of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time as a car sped down the street. Or maybe later in his years being arrested with a wee baggie of dope in his pocket and crossing the very unforgiving US cops. But not cancer.

Here he is shortly before diagnosis with Zoltar from the movie 'Big". I am not superstitious in any which way shape or form, but the fortune Scott received was eerie. We shrugged it off and walked away. Still, it is hard to look at this photograph and not feel a cold shiver run down my spine.

We made it home this afternoon and not before time. Scott has little patience (unlike myself, I was a crippled turtle in my previous life) and had spent much of the last day on the ward completely mute. So with the fever and a silent child my mind couldn't help but wander back to last year and his initial stroke symptoms.
His fever finally went down ... and down ... and down, until his temp was close to being hyperthermic at 95.4 degrees. It finally settled at 96.2 and we were allowed to leave. So, his temperature went down and his glucose level soared. The high end of normal for glucose is 99 and he reached 240. Again this is a repeat from last year when he was on TPN, this time there was no TPN only fluids with sugars and salts. A new order was placed for fluid with no sugar and it went down to 180. So needless to say discharge was under the strict instructions to avoid sugar as much as possible. We were warned last year that Scott will develop diabetes so I can only hope that his levels return to normal next week and we can delay, what seems to be inevitable, as long as possible.
His hemoglobin and platelets are not where I would like them to be. They are lower than they have been in many months and both numbers continued to drop the entire time we were there. This can occur when someone is fighting a viral infection but it is still incredibly worrying to see the very numbers which keep you sane (when they are good) throughout treatment, steadily decline. Transfusions weren't needed and again I hope to see an improvement next Thursday.
He was also sent home with a new drug to try. The drug is Neurontin and I have mentioned it before. It may help to alleviate some of his neuropathy pain and in turn relax his dependence on codeine and ativan. We were initially told he would have to take 9 pills daily, which Scott immediately declined, but were told this morning it was now available in liquid and he would only need to take a spoonful three times daily.
Its good to be home again with my boys, my kitty cats, my chair, my familiar and welcoming toilet, my fridge full of wholesomeness, my memory foam bed, my books, my dead washing machine, (which spookily enough was very much alive and kicking prior to our stay at st joes!!) and most importantly, my fever-free Skittles.
Thats all for now folks.
Thanks for checking in.

Today found a very bored Scott in-patient at St. Joe's. He simply gets bored REALLY fast in the hospital. It was afternoon before any of his Day 1 chemo got ordered, so by the time I stopped by after work, he was very upset and feeling very pukey due to a constant run of drugs being pumped into his IV line. He was made a bit happier due to delivery of the movie "runFatboyrun". But it was only a brief respite.

The good news is his temperature seems to have started behaving today. He was only beyond the borderline temp once after lunch today. They hinted at letting him come home tomorrow if that holds through the night. Stephanie just got me a message that his last reading was a perfect 98.6. So we wait with cautious optimism for release tomorrow. Hopefully whatever bug we've had round the house was zapped by several large syringes of antibiotic.

That's all for now, as I'm going to fall over in a minute.

Our streak ended today

I've never wrote about it on the blog, but we had a hell of a streak going (at least as it relates to a child on a leukemia protocol). The streak was we'd been over a year now without a hospital admission. That streak stopped this evening, as Scott developed a fever during the day. We think he's picked up a bug Derry has had for a couple of days. His temp got up to 101.1 and Doc Wynn ordered us in to the Hotel Tebbi (as Doc Tebbi says - "much more expensive than the Hilton and no where near as nice").

Stephanie and he are now in a PICU room, not because of Scott's condition, but because the normal kid's oncology floor is overstuffed. So overfull in fact, they have taken some parent beds out of the rooms and have 2 kids in some rooms there - something we've never seen before while in-patient.

Scott was a nervous wreck upon arriving at the hospital, and being in a different section. Especially when it came time for him to be accessed. A couple weeks back, he had a horrid nightmare about them missing his port during access, and the needle rupturing his main arteries. He said he was dreaming he was bleeding to death. So when a nurse he'd never seen came in to access him, I thought he may puke right there. He relaxed a little when she told him she actually had trained a couple of his fav nurses when they started. But not much. He was a trooper as always, and got through it and then truly relaxed a bit.

They have taken cultures from him, which won't have results for a couple days at least (if I remember right). His urine looked fine, but his bloodwork has us worried a bit. His ANC is up to 4000, and it should be near its lowest right now. He had a white blood count of 5100, which is a bit high, but could be so if he's carrying a bug of some kind.

Needless to say, we're worried sick.

We'll update further sometime tomorrow, as we get a bit more sorted.