Tom's Status... Neutropenic Fever, Again.

With Tom's WBC count being at 0.0 for now seven days, they had been expecting him to have a fever at some point.  When the body is neutropenic it's susceptible to infection much more so than normal, in fact, the normal bacteria/fungi in the body become a threat with no white blood cells to keep them at bay.

In the past, Tom has had both e.coli and a VRE infection during neutropenia, but we were home when both of those infections started and were told not to go to the hospital until his fever reached 101.4 ... which meant that by the time we usually got there, he'd be like 103 or so and it'd be that much harder to get it down and would take that much longer to get antibiotics, etc. 

Luckily, we're in the hospital this time around and because they were expecting it, they were ready as soon as it got into the high 99's they were waiting and when it got to the 101.4 they had the antibiotics ready, tylenol ready, cultures drawn straight away... so it hasn't passed 102.  That said, he's still been battling the fever, bad headaches, hot-cold swings, etc... and he's also come up with a red spots on his hands and arms (which hopefully the doctor will have answers about here shortly). He was sick after breakfast yesterday morning and only ate half of a slice of toast the rest of the day.  This morning he braved a piece of toast with lemon curd and ate all of it but part of the crust (which was apparently just too toasted).  Yesterday, he didn't really leave the bed, this morning he went for a little walk in the hall, but he's still feeling super crummy.


Today's Counts:  WBC 0.0    Hgb: 8.8    Platelets:  17    
He will definitely receive platelets today and he's hoping that he will get blood (though his parameters are set for less than 8.5 to receive blood, but he gets headaches anywhere below 9.5 so he's asked if they'd make an exception).   He's been receiving neupogen daily since 11/12 and that's supposed to stimulate the white blood cell production, so hopefully when it starts to go up, it will rise quickly.

My mom heads down today to keep Izzy company so I can stay here and she'll be making us Thanksgiving dinner! Hooray!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week!