Rock Bottom

Round six is smooth sailing right? We've got the healthiest kid o the floor, she's a superstar that's for sure. But, even superstarts have bad days. Unfortunately today was one of those for Chelsea. She slept in this morning until 9am and even then only awoke because the resident came to listen to her. She wasn't interested in playing this morning and just hung out a little bit in the room with Daddy and I.

When the doctors came around this morning, we asked them to check her labs. She hasn't had a CBC drawn since Friday and at that point her ANC was 50. Ryan and I were thinking this morning that maybe her ANC was rising and that was just making her feel a little puney. Or, it was possible she's finally hit zero and she's just feeling yucky. They told us no, it was unecessary to draw more blood, then the attending came over to her crib to look her over. He said she looked good. We explained to him that while she looks "good" she's not herself. We reminded the doctors of her last serious infection when she was running around chasing Logan on his new bike before we even knew she was septic. Now, here she is, uninterested in playing and acting even worse than her previous infection. He agreed the change in activity was worrisome and decided they needed to draw some cultures to see if there was an infection in her blood, and he ordered labs while they were at it.

The cultures as always can take up to 48 hours to grow anything, but her labs showed her ANC has finally dropped to zero. She's hit rock bottom. As always, an infection in her blood is especially dangerous because she has no defenses. At least last time her counts were on the rise, right now, we don't know when she'll start to recover. She fell asleep instantly when I laid her down for nap and she slept for 2 1/2 hours. She woke up crying. She was difficult to console and pulled at her diaper when she had a BM. I noticed her temperature was a little warmer, near 101, so I called the nurse. Her temperature had been slowly rising all day. Remember, it's not officially a fever unless they reach 101.5, but Chelsea's temperature usually runs low, so for her, 101 is pretty high. The nurse agreed she was definitely sick, so when she hit 101.2, she convinced the resident to treat her with Tylenol.

For a short time she felt well enough to ride in the 4 Henson Pooh car. We collected some dust bunnies on her socks, then went back to the room for dinner. After eating a little applesauce, she began crying and moaning and was once again unconsolable. Tonight her temp has fluctuated between 102.2 and 100. Even after the Tylenol it barely dropped under 100. The resident and nurses have been on checking on her often. The night nurse was in here when she was crying and acting extremely uncomfortable, so she brought back some oxycodone for any pain. Her blood pressure is stable, which is one good sign. Around 9pm her temp spiked again to 102.2 and we did another dose of Tylenol. At 9:45 it was still 102.2 so they'll check it again soon. If the Tylenol doesn't kick in soon they'll try another med that can help reduce fevers.

We'll all be watching her closely tonight. The resident didn't think she needed any monitors at this point, although monitoring her heart rate and oxygen might make me feel better. I may just sit up and watch her sleep all night, or bring her into bed with me. I'll update again soon. Thanks for your prayers.