Home Sweet Home

Well here I am, on 4 Henson once again. Chelsea and I have accepted that this is our second home these days. Let me clarify though, I'm updating from 4 Henson, but b/c of Chelsea's RSV, she's not staying on this oncology floor. It's too risky for the other patients, but she's right across the hall, still on the 4th floor, and the same doctors are looking after her. You're probably wondering though why we're at the Children's hospital now, so let me back track a bit.

When we arrived at our local hospital yesterday they did new blood cultures and drew labs (one set from her hickman and one from her arm, urgh, I hate it when they stick her!) They were in close contact with her oncologist and they collaborated on which antibiotic to start her on until the cultures grow out. Once this happens, usually in 48 hours, they will be able to identify which antibiotics her bug will respond to. With the antibiotic that they started, the had to do more labs at the beginning and in the middle of her third dose, which of course was super early this morning. Rise and shine! Once again, the people at SV insisted that in order for this all to be accurate they had to do both sets in her arm again. Let's just say it was quite a rude awakening for my sleeping beauty. It was obvious she was still feeling yucky though b/c she went right back to sleep!

When the doctor arrived this morning she noted that Chelsea's white blood count had dropped significantly from 5.1 to 2.5 overnight. White blood cells are the cells that fight off infections. If you're not familiar w/ the numbers, 2.5 is super low for typical people, but actually for Chelsea it's usually the point at which they start chemo again, so it's not too bad for her. Understandably though the pediatrician in the hospital was concerned that if Chelsea did start feeling worse again she wouldn't have the resources to care for her at their hospital. So we agreed to watch her, and within 10 minutes, Chelsea threw up all her meds. The nurse said, I'll be right back and went to talk to the doctor. Thirty minutes later I tracked the nurse down...and just as I suspected, they were making plans to transfer her to Children's. It was just a precautionary measure on their part, they have no pediatric intensive care unit, so this really is a better place for her to be. In all fairness, it's not everyday you see a two year old come in who is being treated for chemo and then has RSV, pneumonia, vomiting, diarrhea and an infection in her central line. I look back now though and I just wish we would have come here in the first place. Well we know now for next time (which hopefully there won't be a next time!)

We have lots of theories as to why her numbers have been so wacky, but there's really no right answer. My mom suggested she was hemoconcentrated which basically means she was dehydrated for so many days her blood was showing that her numbers were significantly higher than they truly were. Another possibility is that her body was working so hard to fight the infection she was getting, her white blood count was very high, and once they started the antibiotics it dropped back down again. Dr. Gamis' (our oncologist) just told me that's what their counts just do. He (like the others on the hemoc team) wasn't surprised at all and still believes that it's not abnormal for her counts to fluctuate after the chemo she has received, her bone marrow is still recovering after all.

Children's Mercy sent an ambulance to pick up Chelsea this afternoon, and quite frankly I think they were probably surprised to see such a healthy looking girl being transported to their hospital. By the time they arrived she was feeling good, fighting me for a nap, and ready to play. Did you know they have DVD players in the ambulances now? Chelsea had a good time entertaining the paramedics and taught them a little sign language as they all watched Baby Signing Times together! I followed in my car.

Of course a new hospital means going through the 'admit' process AGAIN...sigh. So that's twice in the ER, once at SV and once at Childrens: 4 admissions in 6 days. Whew! I never knew I could memorize such a long list of medications, and symptoms, and blood counts, etc....but I have now. Amazing how much information our brains can hold. I'm wondering if I can just take that 'little' test and go ahead and get my license to practice medicine. Sheesh I might as well be making some money off of all this knowledge I've got!

The resident has been in contact with SV, where we were admitted yesterday and SF, the hospital whose ER we went to on Monday night. She discovered tonight that although they both did blood cultures on the same child, they've both got different 'bugs' growing in her central line specimens. Can you believe it?! They said the second culture from SV is one that could possibly be contaminated, but if not, it could just mean she truly has two infections going on in her little body. As I've said a million times though, she's still the healthiest little sick kid you'll meet. Children's took a third blood culture tonight, but it may show nothing since she's already been on antibiotics for 24 hours. They also took yet another blood count which shows her ANC is at 800. That's pretty low, but fortunately it's above the super scary 500, neutropenic low.

What do I need? Prayers. Although she looks great, please pray that there's not more than one infection growing and that whatever it is that was making her so sick responds well to the antibiotics. I really don't want to find too many bugs in her line, or they may opt to replace the whole Hickman...which means surgery. Let's not even go there!

My angel is wiped out now, sleeping like a log. They're monitoring everything tonight, her oxygen, heart rate, etc.,... just because. They're not particularly worried about her breathing or heart, they just want to keep her monitored for a while. As soon as I know something I'll update, I'm hoping to get it figured out and go home Thurs. or Friday on IV antibiotics.